FROM   THE   LIBRARY  OF 


REV.    LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON.  D.  D. 


BEQUEATHED    BY   HIM  TO 

THE   LIBRARY  OF 

PRINCETON   THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


ff)fU(I 


^^R^(  OF  pr;;v^ 


/•: 


MAY  16  1932 


%, 


■'C/i  f  [t:.^ 


v.- 


"^i 


xeifi'isf^ 


AT     THE     MEETING     OF 


^INITARIAN   Society, 


January  12,  1875, 


TOGETHER   WITH    THE    DISCOURSE    DELIVERED    BY 


REV.  W.  H.  FURNESS,  D.D., 


Sunday,  Jan.  lO,  1875, 


#n  lljc  (Occasion  of  tlje  ^iftictb  gmnibcrsarn  of  bis  6rbmatiou, 


January  12,  1825. 

PV\\\a^el  qVv\ a.  Vk >  Fvys\ Cc^NgvegAti on al  llMvVarVaK 

P  H  I  L  A  D  E  L  P  n  I  A  : 

SHERMAN  &  CO.,  PEINTERS. 
1875. 


i^ 

>, 


^t^^d  f  „^^ 


i0cie%. 


On  November  3d,  1874,  the  Trustees  of  the  First  Cod- 
gregational  Unitarian  Church  of  Philadelpliia  issued  the 
following  notice  to  the  members  of  the  parish : 

First  Congregational  Society  of  Unitarian  Christians. 

Philadelphia,  November  3d,  1S74. 
A  meeting  of  the  members  of  this  Society  will  be  held  at  the 
Church  on  Monday,  the  9th  inst.,  at  8  p.  m.,  to  devise  an  appro- 
priate plan  for  celebratinc;  the  completion  of  the  fiftieth  year  of 
Dr.  F  URN  ess'  pastorate. 

As  his  half  century  of  faithful  and  distinguished  service  calls 
for  fitting  commemoration,  and  as  the  members  of  this  Church 
must  rejoice  at  an  opportunity  of  giving  expression  to  their 
love,  admiration,  and  respect  for  him,  a  meeting  that  concerns 
such  an  object  will  commend  itself,  and  prove  of  interest  to 
every  one,  so  that  the  bare  announcement  of  it,  it  is  deemed, 
will  be  sufficient  to  insure  a  full  attendance  of  the  parishioners. 
Bj'  dirc^ction  of  the  Trustees, 

Charles  II.  Coxe, 

Secretary. 


In  pursuance  of  this  notice,  the  members  of  the  Society 
held  a  meeting  in  the  Church  on  the  evening  of  Novem- 
ber 9th,  1874,  to  consider  the  subject  proposed. 

The  meeting  was  organized  with  Mr.  B.  H.  Bartol  as 
Chairman,  and  Mr.  Charles  H.  Coxe  as  Secretary. 

After  stating  the  object  of  the  meeting,  the  Chairman 
called  for  the  opinion  of  the  Society.  It  was  voted  that 
a  committee  of  nine  be  appointed,  who  should,  together 
with  the  Trustees  of  the  Church,  constitute  a  committee 
to  take  entire  charge  of  the  celebration  of  Dr.  Furness' 
Fiftieth  Anniversary  as  Pastor  of  the  Church ;  should 
have  full  power  to  add  to  their  number,  and  make  such 
arrangements  as  might  seem  to  them  suitable  to  the 
occasion. 

The  Chair  appointed  on  this  Committee, 

Mrs.  E.  S.  Sturgis,  Miss  Duhring, 

Mrs.  J.  E.  Kaymond,  Mr.  John  Sartain, 

Miss  Clark,  Mr.  B.  H.  Moore, 

Miss  Koberts,  Mr.  David  Brewer, 

And  at  the  request  of  the  meeting,  Mr.  B.  H.  Bartol,  the 
Chairman,  was  added. 

On  November  14th,  1874,  at  8  o'clock  p.  m.,  the  Com- 
mittee appointed  by  the  Society  held  a  meeting  at  the 
residence  of  Mr.  B.  H.  Bartol,  to  make  arrangements  for 
the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  Dr.  Furness'  pastorate. 

The  Committee  consisted  of  the  following  persons  : 

Trustees. 

Mr.  Henry  Winsor,  Mr.  Lucius  H.  Warren, 

Mr.  John  Sellers,  Jr  ,  Mr.  Joseph  E.  Kaymond, 

Mr.  Enoch  Lewis,  Mr.  D.  E.  Furness, 

Mr.  Charles  H.  Coxe. 


Appointed  hy  the  Society. 

Mrs.  R.  S.  Sturgis,  Miss  Ddhring, 

Mrs.  J.  E.  Raymoxd,  Mr.  John  Sartain, 

Miss  Clark,  Mr.  B.  H.  Moore, 

Miss  Roberts,  Mr.  David  Brewer, 

Mr.  B.  H.  Bartol. 

Mr.  Winsor  was  chosen  ChairmaD,  and  Mr.  Charles 
H.  Coxe,  Secretary. 

It  was  voted,  that  on  the  evening  of  January  12th, 
1875,  there  shoukl  be  a  commemorative  service  in  the 
Chui^h,  and  ministers  from  other  cities  should  be  invited 
to  be  present. 

The  Chair  appointed  as  the  Committee  on  Invitations, 

Mr.  L.  H.  Warren,  Mr.  Enoch  Lewis, 

Mr.  B.  H.  Bartol,  Mr.  David  Brewer, 

Mr.  B.  H.  Moore, 

And  at  the  request  of  the  Committee 

Mr.  Henry  Winsor. 

It  was  also  voted,  that  the  Church  should  be  hand- 
somely and  appropriately  decorated  on  that  occasion. 

The  Chair  appointed  as  the  Committee  on  Decora- 
tions, 

Mr.  Joseph  E.  Raymond,         Mrs.  R.  S.  Sturgis, 
Mr.  L.  H.  AVarren,  Miss  Clark, 

Miss  Roberts,  Miss  Duhring. 

It  was  also  voted,  that  the  Choir  on  that  occasion 
should  be  increased,  if  it  should  be  deemed  expedient 
by  the  Musical  Committee  of  the  Church. 

It  was  further  voted,  that  a  marble  bust  of  Dr.  Furness 
should  be  obtained,  and  placed  in  tlic  Churrh. 


6 

Also,  that  gold  and  bronze  medals  should  be  struck 
off,  commemorative  of  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the 
pastorate  of  Dr.  Furuess, 

And  also,  that  a  suitable  and  handsome  present  should 
be  given  to  Dr.  Furness,  in  the  name  of  the  Society,  as 
a  token  of  their  affection  and  gratitude. 

Also,  that  photographs  of  the  Church  should  be  taken 
as  it  appeared  on  the  day  of  the  anniversary. 

The  Chair  aj^pointed  as  the  Committee  on  Fine  Arts, 

Mr.  John  Sartain,  Mr.  B.  H.  Moore, 

Mr.  Henry  Winsor. 

It  was  also  voted,  that  the  exercises  at  the  ordination 
of  Dr.  Furness  should  be  reprinted,  and  that  the  anni- 
versary sermon  and  the  exercises  at  the  commemorative 
service  should  be  printed  in  pamphlet  form. 

The  Chair  appointed  as  the  Committee  on  Publication, 

Mr.  Dawes  E.  Furness. 

And  as  the  Committee  on  Finance, 

Mr.  B.  H.  Bartol,  Mr.  Enoch  Lewis, 

Mr.  Charles  H.  Coxe. 


On  Sunday,  January  10th,  1875,  Rev.  Dr.  Furness 
preached  his  fiftieth  anniversary  sermon. 

The  following  account  is  taken  from  the  Ckridian 
Register  of  that  week  : 

"Yesterday  was  as  perfect  a  wdnter  day  as  can  be 
imagined,  cool,  clear,  and  bright.  The  Unitarian  church 
was  filled  before  the  hour  of  worship  with  an  eager  and 
deeply  interested  throng.  All  the  pews  were  occupied, 
and  the  aisles  and  the  space  around  the  pulpit  were  filled 
with  chairs.  The  church  was  beautifully  decorated  with 
laurel  wreaths,  and  in  front  of  the  pulpit  the  floral  array 
was  very  rich  yet  very  chaste.  On  the  wall  in  the  rear 
of  the  pulpit  was  an  exquisite  ivy  cross.  Among  the 
festoons  which  overhung  the  pulpit  were  the  figures 
'  1825 '  and  '  1875 '  in  white  and  red  flowers. 

"  Dr.  Furness  seemed  to  be  in  excellent  health,  and 
took  his  part  in  the  rare  and  touching  semi-centennial 
service  without  any  apparent  exhaustion.  After  a  brief 
recital  and  paraphrase  of  appropriate  passages  of  Scrip- 
ture, he  read  with  great  beauty  and  tenderness  the  hymn 
beginning,  '  While  Thee  I  seek,  protecting  Power,'  and 
after  a  prayer  full  of  love,  trust,  and  gratitude,  he  read 
from  the  twentieth  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Acts,  begin- 
ning at  the  seventeenth  verse.  Then  the  congregation 
sang  Lyte's  beautiful  hymn,  'Abide  with  me !  fast  falls 
the  eventide,'  etc.  The  discourse  had  no  text,  excepting 
the  impressive  occasion  itself.  Tiiere  was  less  of  narra- 
tion of  interesting  incidents  than  in  previous  anniversary 
sermons,  yet  the  half  century  was  reviewed  in  a  simj)lc 
and  masterly  way.  The  preacher's  manner  was  (juite 
subdued  until  he  reached  his  studies  of  the  life  of  Jesus, 


when  his  face  became  radiant,  his  tones  fuller  and 
firmer,  and  his  gestures  frequent.  The  allusions  to 
other  denominations  and  to  the  anti-slavery  struggle 
were  exceedingly  fair  and  magnanimous.  The  people 
gave  rapt  attention,  and  there  was  evident  regret  when 
the  sermon  closed. 

"  The  singing  by  a  double  quartette  choir  was  highly 
creditable.  Mr.  Ames'  church  at  Germantown  was  closed, 
and  pastor  and  people  came  to  express  their  sympathy 
with  Dr.  Furness'  society,  and  to  enjoy  the  uplifting 
service.  Dr.  Martineau's  new  hymn-book  was  used,  Dr. 
Furness  having  presented  his  parishioners  with  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  copies  to  supply  all  the  pews." 


X 


DISCOURSE 


DKI.IVKRKD 


SUNDAY   JANUARY    i  o,    1875, 


ON  THE  OCCASION   OF  THK 


FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 


ORDIiNATION,  JANUARY  12,  1825,  AS  THE  PASTOR 


Jirst  Congregational  Unitarian  (Tljnrcl) 


W.    II.    FUENESS   D.D. 


DISCOURSE 


It  is  in  vain,  dear  friends,  that  I  liave  tried  to  set  in 
order  the  thoughts  that  come  crowding  upon  me  as  the 
fiftieth  year  of  my  service  in  this  place  draws  to  a  close. 
I  cannot  tell  what  direction  they  will  take.  But  for  the 
uncertainty  of  life,  I  might  have  reserved  for  this  occa- 
sion the  Recollections  in  which  I  indulged  on  the  last  two 
anniversaries  of  my  Ordination.  All  I  told  you  then  and 
countless  other  memories  come  vividly  to  mind  and  heart 
now.  They  almost  hush  me  into  silence,  so  hopeless  is 
the  endeavor  to  give  them  utterance.  I  must  needs  talk 
about  myself.  How  can  it  be  avoided  on  an  occasion  like 
this?  I  trust  in  the  kind  indulgence  on  your  jmrt  which 
has  never  failed  me  in  all  these  years.  If  I  should  prove 
only  garrulous,  you  will  not  forget  that  I  have  passed  the 
allotted  boundary  and  am  now  one  of  the  borrowers  from 
eternity ;  although  it  hardly  becomes  me  to  make  claim 
to  the  privileges  of  age  in  a  community  where  dwells 
one,  known  and  revered  of  all,  who  has  entered  his  ninety- 
sixth  year,  and  is  not  yet  old. 

First  of  all,  most  humbly  and  heartily  do  I  acknowledge 
and  adore  the  good  Providence  that,  for  no  deserving  of 
mine,  has  blest  me  so  bountifully  and  so  long,  and  given 
me  such  a  dear  home  among  you.  What  friends,  kith 
and  kin  to  me,  have  always  surrounded  me  !  At  the  first 
here  were  my  fathers — I  have  followed  them  all  to  the 
grave.     And  now,  behold !  my  brothers,  my  sisters,  my 


12 


children.  What  a  gift  of  God  the  filial,  the  fraternal, 
the  parental  trust  which  I  have  been  encouraged  to 
cherish !  It  has  been  my  chiefest  treasure,  the  dearest 
sign  of  Heaven's  grace,  my  support,  my  well-sj)ring  of  life. 

During  my  ministry  I  have  received  from  you,  from 
time  to  time,  not  a  few  unlooked-for,  substantial  tokens 
of  your  kind  thoughts  for  me.  They  shall  never  be  for- 
gotten. But  it  is  not  the  remembrance  of  any  special 
proofs  of  your  regard  that  now  moves  me,  but  the  hearty 
faith  in  your  good-will  upon  which  you  have  always  given 
me  reason  to  rely.     This  has  been  my  crowning  privilege. 

Even  when  differences  have  arisen  between  us,  my  trust 
in  your  personal  regard  has  never  been  allowed  to  be 
shaken.  Were  there  exceptions,  they  are  as  good  as  for- 
gotten now.  Even  those  who  have  taken  such  offence  at 
my  words  that  they  withdrew  from  the  church,  still  gave 
me  assurance  of  their  friendship.  There  nsed  to  be  times 
of  painful  excitement  among  us,  you  remember,  when  I 
was  helpless  to  resist  the  impulse  to  plead  for  the  op- 
pressed. I  can  never  forget  how  cheered  I  was  by  one 
friend,  still  living,  but  not  now  dwelling  in  this  city,  who 
came  to  me  and  said  that  he  had  at  the  first  disapproved 
of  my  course,  but  that  he  was  then  in  full  sympathy  with 
me,  and  that,  as  to  the  church's  being  broken  np,  as  was 
predicted,  if  I  persisted  in  speaking  for  the  slave,  that 
should  not  be,  if  a  contribution  to  its  support  from  him 
(and  he  named  a  most  liberal  sum),  could  prevent  it.  Of 
course  I  never  thought  of  availing  myself  of  his  generous 
aid,  or  of  permitting  the  contingency  to  occur  that  would 
make  it  needful.  If  it  had  come  to  that  pass  I  should 
have  felt  myself  bound  to  withdraw. 

You  will  not  think  that  I  offend  against  propriety  in 
mentioning  such  a  private  experience  when  you  consider 
what  an  encouragement  it  was,  what  a  joy  to  know  that 
I  had  such  friends. 


13 


Indeed,  I  would  not  refer  now  to  those  painful  times  at 
all,  could  I  not  in  all  honesty  say  that  I  look  back  upon 
them  with  pride,  not  on  my  own  account,  oh  no !  but  on 
yours,  dear  friends,  on  yours.  How  I  feared  and  trembled, 
and  with  what  a  faltering  voice  did  I  deliver  the  mes- 
sages of  truth  that  came  to  me !  You  resisted  them  too. 
I  tried  to  liold  my  tongue  and  you  to  shut  your  ears.  I 
would  fain  have  run  away  and  hid  myself  from  the  sum- 
mons of  Humanity.  But  I  could  not  do  that.  I  could 
not  resign  my  position  without  putting  you  in  a  false  one, 
in  a  position  which  I  did  not  believe  you  were  willing  to 
take.  And  you  were  not  willing.  This  church,  I  say  it 
proudly,  never  committed  itself  to  the  AVrong.  You  never 
took  any  action  on  that  side.  On  the  contrary,  when,  in 
the  midst  of  that  agitation,  I  was  honored  with  an  invi- 
tation elsewhere,  and  you  had  the  opportunity  of  relief 
by  my  being  transferred  to  another  church,  you  asserted, 
at  a  very  full  meeting,  with  decisive  unanimity,  your 
fidelity  to  the  freedom  of  the  pulpit.  And  now  it  may 
be  written  in  the  annals  of  this  Church  that  in  that  try- 
ing time,  it  stood  fast  on  the  ground  of  Christian  Liberty, 
and  its  minister  had  the  honor  of  being  its  representative. 

While  I  gratefully  acknowledge  the  friendship  which 
has  been  my  sjDccial  blessing  for  half  a  century,  I  gladly 
repeat  what  I  have  said  on  former  anniversaries  of  my 
ministry,  that  the  kindness  I  have  received  has  not  come 
from  you  alone.  How  little  has  there  been  in  all  this 
time  to  remind  me  that  we  of  this  Church  bear  an  obnox- 
ious name!  How  many  are  there  wlio  are  not  of  this 
little  fold,  but  of  other  denominations,  who  have  made 
me  feel  that  they  belonged  to  me  !  O  friends,  it  is  not  all 
bearing  the  same  religious  name,  but  all  bearing  different 
religious  names  and  yet  each  respecting  in  others  the 
right  of  every  one  to  think  for  himself, — this  it  is  that 


14 


illustrates  most  impressively  the  broad  spirit  of  our  com- 
mon Christianity.  I  had  rather  see  this  fact  manifest 
than  a  hundred  churches  agreeing  exactly  with  me  in 
opinion. 

I  preached  my  first  sermon  in  the  fall  of  1823,  in  Water- 
town,  Massachusetts.  And  then,  for  a  few  months,  I 
preached  as  a  candidate  for  settlement  in  Churches  in 
Boston  and  its  vicinity  needing  pastors.  Kind  and  flat- 
tering things  were  said  to  me  of  my  ministrations,  but  I 
put  little  faith  in  them,  as  they  came  from  the  many  rela- 
tives and  friends  that  I  and  mine  had  in  that  quarter,  and 
their  judgment  was  biased  by  regard  for  me  and  mine. 
I  was  strengthened  in  my  distrust  when  friends,  fellow- 
students,  and  fellow-candidates,  were  preferred  before  me. 
I  never  envied  them  their  success.  I  felt  not  the  slightest 
mortification,  such  a  hearty  dread  had  I  of  being  settled 
in  Boston,  whose  church-goers  had  in  those  days  the  repu- 
tation of  being  terribly  critical,  and  rhetoric  then  and 
there  was  almost  a  religion.  I  felt  myself  utterly  unequal 
to  that  position.  All  my  day-dreams  had  been  of  the 
country,  of  some  village  church. 

In  May,  1824,  I  gladly  availed  myself  of  the  oppor- 
tunity that  was  offered  me  of  spending  three  months  in 
Baltimore  as  an  assistant  of  Mr  Greenwood,  afterwards 
pastor  of  the  Stone  Chapel,  Boston.  Before  I  left  Bal- 
timore, the  last  of  July  of  that  year,  I  received  a  letter 
from  this  city,  inviting  me  to  stop  on  my  way  home 
and  preach  a  few^  Sundays  in  the  little  church  here.  I 
accepted  the  invitation  as  in  duty  bound,  but  rather  re- 
luctantly, as  I  had  never  before  been  so  long  and  so  far 
away  from  home,  and  I  was  homesick.  I  spent  the 
month  of  August  here.  I  do  not  recollect  that  I  had  any 
thought  of  being  a  candidate  for  this  pulpit.  Such  had 
been  my  experience,  my  ill  success, — I  do  not  wonder  at 


15 


it  now, — that  I  was  surprised  and  gratified  when,  upon  the 
eve  of  my  departure,  I  was  waited  upon  by  a  committee  of 
four  or  five, — I  have  had  a  suspicion  since,  so  few  were 
the  members  of  this  Church  then,  that  this  committee 
comprised  nearly  the  whole  Church  meeting  from  which 
they  came, — and  they  cordially  invited  me  to  return  and 
become  their  pastor.  As  I  had  come  here  a  perfect 
stranger,  and  there  were  no  prepossessions  in  my  favor,  I 
could  not  but  have  at  the  very  first  a  gratifying  confi- 
dence in  this  invitation.  Although  I  asked  time  for  con- 
sideration, I  responded  at  once  in  my  heart  to  the  kind- 
ness shown  to  me.  Thus  the  aspirant  to  a  country  parish 
Avas  led  to  this  great  city. 

The  three  hundred  miles  and  more  that  separate  Phila- 
delphia from  my  native  Boston  were  a  great  deal  longer 
then  than  they  are  now.  It  took  then  at  least  two  days 
and  a  half  to  go  from  one  to  the  other.  A  minister  of  our 
denomination  in  Boston  and  its  neighborhood  had  then  a 
great  help  in  the  custom  then  and  there  prevalent  of  a 
frequent  exchange  of  pulpits.  One  seldom  occupied  his 
own  pulpit  more  than  half  of  the  time.  But  this  church 
in  Philadelphia  was  an  outpost,  and  the  lightening  of 
the  labor  by  exchanges  was  not  to  be  looked  for.  There 
was  no  one  to  exchange  with  nearer  than  AVilliani  Ware, 
pastor  of  the  church  in  New  York.  The  i)lacc  to  be 
filled  here  looked  lonely  and  formidable.  I  accepted, 
however,  the  lead  of  circumstances,  moved  by  the  confi- 
dence with  which  the  hospitable  members  of  this  church 
inspired  me.  I  was  drawn  to  this  part  of  the  vineyard 
by  their  readiness  to  welcome  me. 

My  ordination  was  delayed  some  months  by  the  difli- 
culty  of  obtaining  ministers  to  come  and  take  part  in  it. 
It  was  a  journey  then.  The  days  had  only  just  gone  by 
when  our  pious  New  England  fathers  who  made  it  had 
prayers  offered  up  in  their  churches  for  the  protection  of 


16 


Heaven  (or  rather  in  their  meeting-houses,  as  all  places 
of  worship  except  the  Catholic  and  Episcopal  were  called ; 
we  never  talked  of  going  to  church,  we  went  to  meeting). 
Ordinations  have  ceased  to  be  the  solemn  occasions  they 
were  then.  Then  they  were  sacramental  in  their  signifi- 
cation, like  marriage.  As  our  liberal  faith  was  then 
everywhere  spoken  against,  it  was  thought  necessary  that 
my  ordination  should  be  conducted  as  impressively  as 
possible.  It  is  pleasant  now  to  remember  that  with  the 
two  Wares,  Henry  Ware,  Jr,  and  William,  and  Dr 
Gannett,  came  one  of  the  fathers,  far  advanced  in  years, 
the  venerable  Dr  Bancroft,  of  AVorcester,  Mass.,  the 
honored  father  of  a  distinguished  son,  to  partake  in  the 
exercises  of  the  occasion.     They  are  all  gone  now. 

This  Church  had  its  beginning  in  1796,  when  seven 
persons,  nearly  all  from  the  old  country,  shortly  increased 
to  fourteen,  with  their  families,  agreed,  at  the  suggestion 
of  Dr  Priestley,  who  came  to  this  country  in  1794,  to 
meet  every  Sunday  and  take  turns  as  readers  of  printed 
sermons  and  prayers  of  the  Liberal  Faith.  These  meet- 
ings were  occasionally  interrupted  by  the  yellow  fever, 
by  which  Philadelphia  was  then  visited  almost  every 
year,  but  they  were  never  wholly  given  up. 

In  1813  the  small  brick  building  was  built  in  which  I 
first  preached,  and  which  stood  on  the  southwest  corner 
of  the  present  lot,  directly  on  the  street.  A  charter  was 
then  obtained  under  the  title  of  "  The  First  Society  of 
Unitarian  Christians."  So  obnoxious  then  was  the  Uni- 
tarian name  that  the  most  advanced  men  of  our  laith  in 
Boston,  the  fountain-head  of  American  Unitarianism, 
remonstrated  with  the  fathers  of  this  church,  and  coun- 
selled them  to  abstain  from  the  use  of  so  unpopular  a  des- 
ignation. But  our  founders,  being  Unitarians  from  Old 
England  and  not  from  New,  and  consequently  warm  ad- 


17 


mirers,  and  some  of  them  persoual  friends,  of  Dr  Priestley, 
whose  autograph  was  on  their  records  as  one  of  their 
members,  felt  themselves  only  honored  in  bearing  with 
him  the  opprobrium  of  the  Unitarian  name.  The  title 
of  our  Church  was  afterwards  changed  to  its  present  de- 
nomination, to-bring  it  nominally  into  accord  with  our 
brethren  in  New  England.  In  1828  this  building  took 
the  place  of  the  first. 

It  was  about  ten  years  before  I  came  here  that  the 
Trinitarian  and  Unitarian  controversy  began.  One  of  its 
earliest  forms  appeared  in  published  letters  in  1815  be- 
tween Dr  Chanuing,  the  pastor  of  the  Federal  Street 
Church  in  Boston,  and  Dr  Samuel  Worcester,  an  able 
orthodox  minister  of  Salem,  Mass.  In  1819  Dr  Chan- 
ning  preached  a  sermon  at  the  ordination  of  Mr  Sparks 
in  Baltimore,  which  was  then  and  ever  will  be  regarded 
as  an  eloquent  and  felicitous  statement  of  the  views  of 
the  liberally  disposed  of  that  day.  It  commanded  great 
attention  far  and  wide,  and  gave  occasion  to  a  verv  able, 
learned,  and  courteous  controversy  between  Dr  Woods 
and  Mr  Stuart,  professors  in  the  Orthodox  Theological 
School  in  Andover,  Mass.,  on  the  one  side,  and  Pro- 
fessors Henry  Ware,  Sr,  and  Andrews  Norton,  of  the  Cam- 
bridge Theological  School  on  the  other.  The  controversy 
spread  mostly  in  Massachusetts.  In  the  small  towns 
where  there  had  been  only  one  church,  there  speedily  ap- 
peared two.  Families  were  divided,  not  Avithout  heats 
and  coolnesses,  to  the  hurt  of  Christian  fellowship.  As 
a  general  rule,  fathers  took  the  liberal  side,  mothers  the 
orthodox. 

When  I  came  here  in  1825,  the  first  excitement  of  the 
controversy  had  somewhat  subsided.  It  had  lost  its  first 
keen  interest.  It  was  growing  lather  wearisome.  It  had 
snowed  tracts,  Trinitarian  and  Unitarian,  over  the  land. 
Accordingly,  although  I  was  a  warm  partisan,  full  of  con- 


18 


fidence  in  the  rational  and  scriptural  superiority  of  the 
Unitarian  faith,  I  did  not  feel  moved  to  preach  doctrinal 
sermons.  And,  furthermore,  as  I  was  on  my  way  hither 
in  the  mail  coach,  in  company  with  my  friends,  ministers 
and  delegates  from  Boston  and  New  York,  I  was  greatly 
impressed  by  a  remark  made  by  one  of  my  elders  to  the 
effect  that  people  were  bound  to  their  several  churches, 
not  by  the  force  of  reason  and  the  results  of  religious  in- 
quiry, but  by  mere  use  and  wont  and  affection. 

Of  the  truth  of  this  remark,  by  the  way,  I  had  a 
striking  instance  some  years  ago.  One  of  our  fellow- 
citizens,  now  deceased,  an  intelligent,  respectable  man,  a 
devoted  member  of  one  of  our  Presbyterian  churches, 
used  to  come  to  me  to  borrow  Theodore  Parker's  writings, 
in  which  he  took  great  pleasure.  But  he  said  he  never 
dreamed  of  withdrawing  from  his  Church.  As  Kichter 
says,  his  Church  was  his  mother.  You  could  not  have 
weaned  him  from  her  by  telling  him  hoAV  many  better 
mothers  there  were  in  the  world.  This  truth  impressed 
me  greatly,  and  was  a  comfort  to  me  in  my  younger  days. 
Although  I  have  rarely  preached  an  outright  doctrinal 
discourse,  yet  I  had  many  interesting  experiences  in  ref- 
erence to  the  spread  of  liberal  ideas.  I  regret  that  I 
have  not  done  in  my  small  way  what  that  eminent  man, 
John  Quincy  Adams,  as  his  Memoirs  now  in  course  of 
publication  show  he  did  in  his  wonderfully  thorough  way, 
— kept  a  diary.  Very  frequently  has  it  occurred  that  per- 
sons have  come  to  me  who  had  chanced  to  hear  a  Unita- 
rian sermon,  or  read  a  Unitarian  book  for  the  first  time, 
and  they  declared  that  it  expressed  their  views  precisely, 
and  they  did  not  know  before  that  there  was  anybody  in 
the  world  of  that  way  of  thinking. 

Once,  many  years  ago,  I  received  a  letter  from  a 
stranger  in  Virginia,  bearing  a  well-known  Virginia 
name.     She  wrote  to  tell  me  that  a  year  before,  she  was 


19 


in  Philadelphia,  aucl,  much  against  her  conscience,  had 
been  induced  by  her  husband  to  enter  this  church.  Al- 
thouo-h  there  was  nothiusj  of  a  doctrinal  character  in  the 
sermon,  the  effect  was  to  move  her  when  she  returned 
home  to  study  the  Scriptures  for  herself  with  new  care. 
The  result  was  that  she  now  believed  upon  their  au- 
thority that  there  was  only  one  God,  the  Father,  and 
that  Jesus  Christ  was  a  dependent  being.  There  were 
some  texts,  however,  that  she  wished  to  liave  explained, 
and  therefore  she  wrote  to  me.  The  texts  she  specified 
showed  that  she  could  not  have  met  with  any  of  our 
publications,  for,  had  she  done  so,  she  would  certainly 
have  found  the  explanations  she  desired.  Of  course  I 
did  what  I  could  to  supply  her  wants. 

I  think  this  incident  would  have  passed  away  from 
my  mind  or  been  only  dimly  remembered  if,  twenty-five 
years  afterwards,  and  after  the  war  of  the  Rebellion,  I 
had  not  received  another  letter  from  the  same  person. 
In  it  she  referred  to  our  correspondence  of  five-and- 
twenty  years  before,  and  said  that  she  wrote  now  in  be- 
half of  some  suffering  people,  formerly  her  servants 
(slaves,  I  presume).  Through  the  kindness  of  Mr  John 
Welsh,  chairman  of  a  committee  that  had  been  chosen 
by  our  fellow-citizens  for  the  relief  of  the  Southern  people, 
I  was  enabled  to  send  her  a  sum  of  money.  A  quantity 
of  clothing  was  also  procured  for  her  from  the  Freed- 
men's  Kelief  Association.  My  Southern  friend  returned, 
with  her  thanks,  a  very  minute  account  of  the  disposi- 
tion she  had  made  of  the  supplies  sent  to  her.  She  ap- 
peared to  have  accepted  with  a  Christian  grace  the 
changed  condition  of  things  in  the  South.  INIay  we  not 
give  something  of  the  credit  of  this  gracious  behavior  to 
the  liberal  faith  which  she  had  learned  to  cherish? 

It  was  cases  like  this  that  caused  me  to  feel  less  and 
less  interest  in  doctrines  and  religious  controversies.     I 


20 


have  been  learning  every  day  that,  much  as  men  differ 
in  religion  and  numberless  other  things,  they  are,  after 
all,  more  alike  than  different,  and  that  in  our  intercourse 
with  our  fellow-men  it  is  best  to  ignore  those  differences 
as  much  as  possible,  and  take  for  granted  that  we  and 
they  are  all  of  one  kind. 

And  furthermore,  in  free  conversation  with  educated 
and  intelligent  persons  of  this  city,  with  whom  I  have 
become  acquainted,  I  long  ago  found  out  that  it  was  not 
orthodoxy  that  prevailed;  it  was  not  the  doctrines  of 
Calvin  and  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  that  were  rampant, 
but  that  there  was  a  wide-spread  scepticism  as  to  the 
simplest  facts  of  historical  Christianity.  To  persons  of 
this  class,  numerous,  years  ago,  and  not  less  numerous 
now,  it  mattered  little  whether  the  Bible  taught  the 
Trinity  or  the  Unity  of  the  Divine  Nature.  The  ques- 
tion with  them  is,  whether  it  be  not  all  a  fable. 

It  was  this  state  of  mind  that  I  was  continually  meet- 
ing with  that  early  gave  to  my  humble  studies  a  very 
definite  and  positive  direction.  It  was  high  time,  I 
thought,  to  look  to  the  very  foundations  of  Christianity, 
and  see  to  it,  not  whether  the  Christian  Records,  upon 
which  we  are  all  resting,  favor  the  Trinitarian  or  the 
Unitarian  interpretation  of  their  contents,  but  whether 
they  have  any  basis  in  Fact,  and  to  what  that  basis 
amounts.  As  this  seemed  to  be  the  fundamental  inquiry, 
so,  of  all  inquiries,  it  became  to  me  the  most  interesting. 
In  studying  this  question  I  could  not  satisfy  myself 
that  any  external,  historical  argument,  however  power- 
ful, in  favor  of  the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  the 
Christian  Records,  could  prove  decisive.  For  even  if  it 
were  thus  proved  to  demonstration  that  we  have  in  the 
Four  Gospels  the  very  works,  word  for  word,  of  the 
writers  whose  names  they  bear,  there  would  still  remain 
untouched  the  question:    How,  after  all,  do  we  know 


21 

that  these  writers,  honest  aud  intelligent  as  they  may 
have  been,  were  not  mistaken? 

There  was  only  one  thing  to  be  clone :  To  examine  these 
writings  themselves,  and  to  find  out  what  they  really  are. 
With  the  one  single  desire  to  ascertain  their  true  char- 
acter, that  is,  whether  they  be  narratives  of  facts  or  of 
fables,  or  a  mingle  of  both,  they  were  to  be  studied,  and 
the  principles  of  reason,  truth,  and  probability  were  to  be 
applied  to  them  just  as  if  they  were  anonymous  frag- 
ments recently  discovered  in  some  monastery  of  the  East, 
or  dug  up  from  under  some  ancient  ruins. 

On  the  face  of  them,  they  are  very  artlessly  constructed. 
Here  was  one  good  reason  for  believing  that,  though  it 
might  be  difficult,  it  could  not  be  impossible  to  determine 
what  they  are.  Since  Science  can  discover  in  any  com- 
pound the  simples  of  which  it  is  composed,  although 
present  in  infinitesimal  quantities,  surely  then  it  can  be 
ascertained  of  what  these  artless  works  of  human  hands 
are  made  :  whether  they  be  the  creations  of  fancy  or  the 
productions  of  truth. 

Then,  again,  as  obviously,  these  primitive  Records 
abound  in  allusions  to  times,  places,  and  persons.  Here 
was  another  ground  of  hope  that  the  inquiry  into  their 
real  character  would  not  be  in  vain.  When  one  is  tell- 
ing a  story  not  founded  in  fact,  he  takes  good  care  how 
he  refers  to  times,  and  persons,  and  places,  since  every 
such  reference  is  virtually  summoning  a  witness  to  testify 
to  his  credibility. 

Encouraged  by  these  considerations,  I  have  now,  for 
forty  years  and  more,  given  myself  to  this  fundamental 
inquiry.  It  has  been  said  that  only  scholars,  far  more 
learned  men  than  I  pretend  to  be,  can  settle  the  his- 
torical claims  of  the  Four  Gospels.  But  the  fact  is,  the 
theologians  in  Germany  and  elsewhere,  profound  as  their 
learning  is,  have  busied  themselves  about  the  external 


22 


historical  arguments  for  the  truth  of  the  Gospels.  They 
have  been  given,  it  has  seemed  to  me,  to  a  quibbling 
sort  of  criticism  about  jots  and  tittles.  But  it  is  not 
microscopes,  but  an  eye  to  see  with,  that  is  the  one  thing 
needed  for  the  elucidation  of  these  Writings. 

When  we  first  occupied  this  building,  I  read  courses 
of  Expository  Lectures  every  Tuesday  evening,  in  a 
room  which  was  fitted  up  as  a  vestry,  under  the  church, 
for  some  four  or  five  months  in  the  year,  for  five  seasons. 
The  attendance  was  never  large;  some  thirty  persons 
perhaps  gave  me  their  presence.  But  my  interest  in  the 
study  came  not  from  my  hearers,  but  from  the  subject, 
in  which,  from  that  time  to  this,  I  have  found  an  in- 
creasing delight.  Continually  new  and  inimitable  marks 
of  truth  have  been  disclosed.  Unable  to  keep  to  myself 
what  I  found  so  convincing,  I  have  from  time  to  time 
published  the  discoveries,  or  what  appeared  to  me  dis- 
coveries, that  I  made.  The  editions  of  my  little  pub- 
lished volumes  have  never  been  large.  Many  persons 
tell  me  they  have  read  them.  I  can  reconcile  the  fact 
that  they  have  been  so  much  read  with  their  very  limited 
sale  only  by  supposing  that  the  few  copies  sold  have  been 
loaned  very  extensively.  Do  not  think,  friends,  that  I 
am  making  any  complaint.  As  I  have  just  said,  my  in- 
terest in  the  subject  has  not  depended  upon  others,  either 
hearers  or  readers.  The  subject  itself  has  been  my  abun- 
dant compensation. 

To  many  of  my  brothers  in  the  ministry  I  have  ap- 
peared, I  suppose,  to  be  the  dupe  of  my  own  fancies. 
What  I  have  offered  as  sparkling  gems  of  fact  have  been 
regarded  as  made,  not  found.  Some  time  ago  I  came 
across  an  old  letter  from  my  venerated  friend,  the  late 
Henry  Ware,  Jr,  in  which  he  expostulated  with  me  for 
wasting  myself  upon  such  a  barren  study  as  he  appears  to 
have  regarded  the  endeavor  to  ascertain  whether  this 


23 

great  Christendom  be  founded  on  a  fable  or  on  the  ada- 
mant of  Fact. 

So  dependent  are  we  all  upon  the  sympathy  of  others, 
that  I  believe  my  interest  in  this  pursuit  would  have 
abated  long  ago  had  it  not  been  that  the  subject  had  an 
overpowering  charm  in  itself,  and  that  one  great  result 
of  the  inquiry,  becoming  more  and  more  significant  at 
every  step,  was  to  bring  out  in  ever  clearer  light  the 
Godlike  Character  of  the   Man  of  Nazareth.     As   he 
has  gradually  emerged  from  the  thick  mists  of  super- 
stition and  theological  speculation  in  which  he  had  so 
long  been  hidden  from  my  sight,  his  Person,  as  profoundly 
natural  as  it  was  profoundly  original,  has  broken  upon 
me  at  times  as  "  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory 
of  God."     Not  in  any  alleged  miracle,  not  in  any  nor 
in  all  His  works,  wonderful  and  unprecedented  as  some 
of  them  were,  not  in  His  words,  immortal  as  is  the  wis- 
dom that  he  uttered,  but  in  that  reserved  fulness  of  per- 
sonal power  of  which  His  works  and  words, — His  whole 
overt  life  gives  only  a  hint,  significant,  indeed,  but  only 
a  hint— there,  in  himself,  in  what  He  was,  in  the  native, 
original  power  of  the  Man,  the  secret  of  His  mighty  in- 
fluence has  been  laid  bare  to  me.     That  it  is  that  ex- 
plains the  existence  of  the  wondrous  stories  of  His  life. 
They  had  to  be,  and  to  be  just  what  they  are,  with  all 
their  discrepancies,  mistakes,  and  somewhat  of  the  fabu- 
lous that  is  found  in  them,  born  as  they  were  of  the  irre- 
sistible force  of  His  personal  truth.    And  that  it  is,  also, 
which  is  the  inexhaustible  fountain   of  Inspiration,  of 
Faith,  and  Love,  and  Hope,  which  the  Infinite  Mercy  has 
opened  in  the  world,  and  of  which  men,  fainting  and  per- 
ishing in  their  sins,  shall  drink,  and  from  witliin   ihrni 
shall  flow  rivers  of  healing  and  of  health. 

As  I  have  intimated,  friends,  there  have  l)ecn  times 
when  I  have  felt  somewhat  lonely  in  this  study.     But 


24 


some  ten  years  ago  a  marked  change  came  over  the 
course  of  religious  thought  occasioned  by  the  appearance 
of  a  Life  of  Jesus,  by  an  eloquent  and  learned  man  in 
France,  who,  belonging  to  the  sceptical  school,  scarcely 
believing  that  such  a  person  as  Jesus  eyer  had  an  exist- 
ence, went  to  Syria  upon  a  scientific  errand,  and  when 
there  was  struck  by  the  evidences  that  he  beheld  of  the 
geographical  truth  of  the  New  Testament.  So  strong  a 
conviction  was  born  in  him  of  the  reality  of  Jesus  that 
he  was  moved  to  write  his  life.  It  is  true  there  is  little 
else  in  the  book  of  Ernest  Renan  recognized  as  fact,  be- 
yond the  actual  existence  and  the  great  sayings  of  Jesus. 
This  was  something,  coming  from  the  quarter  it  did. 
And,  moreover,  with  all  the  doubts  which  it  suggests  as 
to  particular  incidents  in  the  Gospel  histories,  its  publi- 
cation has  been  justified  by  the  efiect  it  had  in  turning 
attention  to  the  human  side  of  that  great  life.  It  has 
created  a  new  interest  in  the  Man. 

And  further.  Science,  becoming  popular,  is  impressing 
the  general  mind  so  deeply  Avith  the  idea  of  the  inviolable 
order  of  Nature,  that  it  is  not  to  be  believed  that  men 
will  look  much  longer  for  the  credentials  of  any  person, 
or  of  any  fact,  in  his  or  its  departure  from  that  order. 
Nothing  can  be  recognized  as  truth  that  violates  the  laws 
of  Nature,  or  rather  that  does  not  harmonize  with  them 
fully.  Deeply  impressed  with  the  entire  naturalness  of 
Jesus,  I  believe  that  the  time  is  at  hand  when  the  evi- 
dences of  His  truth,  of  His  divinity,  will  be  sought,  not 
in  any  preternatural  events  or  theories,  but  in  His  full 
accord  with  the  natural  truth  of  things.  As  the  one  Fact, 
or  Person,  in  whom  the  highest  or  deepest  in  Nature  is 
revealed.  He  is  the  central  fact,  harmonizing  all  nature. 

Never,  never,  from  the  first,  has  it  been  more  important 
that  the  personality  of  Jesus  should  be  appreciated  than 
at  the  present  time.     The  Darwinian  law  of  Natural 


25 


SelectioD  aud  the  Survival  of  the  Fittest  is  in  all  men's 
minds,  and  in  the  material,  organized  world  of  plants  and 
animals,  we  are  all  coming  to  consider  it  demonstrated. 
As  an  animal,  man  must  be  concluded  under  that  law. 
In  the  physical  world,  as  Professor  Tyndall  tells  us,  "  the 
weakest  must  go  to  the  wall." 

But  man  is  something,  a  great  deal  more  than  an  ani- 
mal. He  has  an  immaterial,  moral,  intellectual  being, 
for  which  he  has  the  irresistible  testimony  of  his  own 
consciousness ;  and  as  an  immaterial  being,  it  is  not  at 
the  cost  of  the  weak,  but  it  is  by  helping  the  weak  to 
live  that  any  individual  becomes  strong.  This,  this  is 
the  great  law  of  our  spiritual  nature.  The  highest,  the 
elect,  they  whom  Nature  selects,  the  fittest  to  live,  are 
those  who  are  ready  to  die  for  others,  sacrificing  their 
mortal  existence,  if  need  be,  to  lift  up  the  weakest  to 
their  immortal  fellowship.  In  the  unchangeable  order 
of  things,  not  only  is  it  not  possible  for  a  moral  and  in- 
tellectual being  to  become  great  by  sacrificing  others  to 
his  own  advancement,  his  greatness  can  be  secured  only 
by  giving  himself  for  them. 

Let  Science,  then,  go  on  pouring  light  upon  the  laws 
and  order  of  the  material  Universe.  But  let  it  stand  by 
its  admission  that  the  connection  between  that  and  the 
immaterial  world,  however  intimate,  is  not  only  inscru- 
table, but  unthinkable;  and  reverently  recognize,  stand- 
ing there  on  the  threshold  of  the  immaterial  world,  one 
Godlike  IMgure,  surrounded  by  the  patriots  and  martyrs, 
the  great  and  good  of  every  age  and  country,  holy  angels, 
but  high  above  them  all  in  the  perfectness  of  his  Self- 
abnegation.  No  one  took  His  life  from  him  ;  He  gave  it 
up  freely  of  himself  And  thus  is  He  a  special  revelation 
of  the  law  that  reigns  in  the  moral  world,  as  surely  as 
the  law  of  natural  selection  reigns  in  the  physical. 

4 


26 


What  renders  the  character  of  Jesus  of  still  greater 
interest  at  this  present  time  is  the  fact  that  there  are 
thoughtful  and  enlightened  men  who  aver  that  they 
would  fain  be  rid  of  Him,  since  He  has  been  and  still  is 
the  occasion  of  so  much  enslaving  error.  They  might 
as  well,  for  the  same  reason,  join  with  Porson  and  "damn 
the  nature  of  things,"  for  what  has  occasioned  greater 
error  than  the  nature  of  things?  It  can  be  got  rid  of 
as  easily  as  the  Person  of  Jesus. 

For  some  twenty  years  or  more  before  the  war  of  the 
Rebellion,  the  question  which  that  war  settled  interested 
me  deeply.  But  on  the  last  anniversary  of  my  ministry 
I  dwelt  chiefly  upon  the  experiences  of  that  period.  I 
need  not  repeat  what  I  said  then.  It  was  a  season  of 
severe  discipline  to  us  all,  to  the  whole  people  of  our 
country. 

I  will  only  say  here,  that  so  far  from  diverting  my 
interest  from  the  great  subject  of  which  I  have  been 
speaking,  it  harmonized  with  it  and  increased  it.  As  I 
read  the  events  and  signs  of  that  trying  time,  they  be- 
came to  me  a  living  commentary  upon  the  words  of  the 
Lord  Jesus.  Precepts  of  His,  that  had  before  seemed 
trite,  began  glowing  and  burning  like  revelations  fresh 
from  the  Invisible.  The  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan 
seemed  to  be  made  expressly  for  that  hour.  That  scene 
in  the  synagogue  at  Nazareth,  when  all  there  were  filled 
with  wrath  at  what  Jesus  said, — how  real  was  it,  read  by 
the  light  of  the  flames  that  consumed  Pennsylvania  Hall ! 
As  the  truths  of  the  New  Testament,  simple  and  divine, 
rose  like  suns  and  poured  their  light  upon  that  long 
conflict,  so  did  those  days  in  return  disclose  a  new  and 
pointed  significance  in  those  simple  pages,  giving  life  to 
our  Christian  faith. 


27 


What  a  time,  friends,  has  this  been,  the  latter  half  of 
our  first  national  century !  It  was  a  great  day  in  history 
which  gave  the  world  the  Printing-Press  and  the  Protest- 
ant Reformation.  But  does  not  the  last  half  century 
rival  it?  The  railroad  and  the  telegraph,  mountains 
levelled,  oceans  and  continents  united,  time  and  space 
vanishing,  the  huge  sun  made  our  submissive  artist, 
the  establishment  of  universal  liberty  over  this  broad 
land, — are  not  these  things  responding  with  literal  obedi- 
ence to  the  command  of  the  ancient  prophet :  "  Prepare 
ye  the  way  of  the  Lord ;  make  his  path  straight?" 

It  is  a  wonderful  day,  a  great  day  of  the  Lord.  "We 
are  stocks  and  stones  if  we  do  not  catch  the  spirit,  the 
generous  spirit,  of  the  Almighty  breathing  and  brooding 
in  countless  unacknowledged  ways  over  this  mysterious 
human  race.  All  things,  like  a  host  of  prophets,  are  point- 
ing us  to  an  unimaginable  destiny.  The  authority  of  the 
human  soul  over  the  visible  Universe  is  becoming  every 
hour  more  assured.  We  are  not  here  to  walk  in  a  vain 
show,  to  live  only  for  the  lust  of  the  eye,  so  soon  to  be 
quenched  in  dust,  or  for  the  pride  which  feeds  on  what 
withers  almost  at  the  touch.  Our  nature  bears  the  in- 
eradicable likeness  of  the  Highest.  Tlie  mystery  of  it  is 
hidden  in  the  mystery  of  all  being,  and  the  laws  of  our 
minds  are  revealed  in  the  laws  which  hold  the  whole  Cre- 
ation together.  We  are  not  servants,  we  are  sons,  heirs 
of  God ;  joint  heirs  with  Jesus  and  all  tlie  good  and 
great.  And  all  is  ours,  ours  to  raise  and  enlarge  our 
thoughts,  to  set  us  free  from  the  corrupting  bondage  of  the 
senses,  to  deepen  our  hunger  and  thirst  for  the  only  Liv- 
ing and  the  True,  for  the  beauty  of  Holiness,  the  im- 
mortal life  of  God.  And  all  our  private  experience;  all 
our  conflicts,  our  victories  and  our  defeats ;  all  the  joys 
and  sorrows  which  we  have  shared  together, — the  sacred 


28 


memories  that  come  to  us  to-day  of  parents,  sons,  daugh- 
ters, and  dear  ones  departed, — do  they  not  throng  around 
us  now,  and  kindle  our  hearts  with  unutterable  prayers 
for  ourselves,  for  our  children,  and  for  one  another? 


NOTE 

On  the  last  anniversary  of  my  ordination  (the  forty- 
ninth)  I  was  led  to  dwell  upon  the  Anti-slavery  period 
of  thirty  years  before  the  war  of  the  rebellion.  It  was  a 
period  of  intense  interest,  a  great  chapter  in  the  history 
of  our  country. 

There  was  one  incident  of  those  times  to  which  I  par- 
ticularly referred  a  year  ago,  which  I  wish  to  record  here, 
not  on  account  of  any  great  part  that  I  had  in  it,  but  for 
the  interesting  character  of  the  whole  aflfliir;  and  be- 
cause, thinking  it  of  some  historical  value,  I  am  not 
aware  that  it  has  ever  been  recorded  save  in  the  daily 
press  of  the  time.  From  a  MS.  record  made  some  time 
ago  of  "  Eeminiscences,"  the  following  extract  is  tran- 
scribed : 


29 


"  The  most  memorable  occasion  in  my  Anti-slavery  ex- 
perience was  the  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Anti- 
slavery  Society  held  in  the  'Tabernacle,'  as  it  was  called, 
in  New  York,  in  May,  1850, 1  believe  it  was.  I  accepted 
an  invitation  to  speak  on  that  occasion,  holding  myself 
greatly  honored  thereby. 

"  Having  no  gift  of  extemporaneous  speech,  I  prepared 
myself  with  the  utmost  pains.  I  went  to  New  York 
the  day  before  the  meeting ;  saw  Mr  Garrison  and  Wen- 
dell Phillij^s.  Mr  Garrison  said  there  would  be  a  riot, 
as  the  Press  had  been  doing  its  utmost  to  inflame  the 
public  mind  against  the  Abolitionists. 

"When  the  meeting  was  opened,  the  large  hall,  said 
to  be  the  largest  then  in  New  York,  capable  of  holding 
some  thousands,  was  apparently  full.  The  vast  majority 
of  the  audience  were  doubtless  friendly  to  the  object  of 
the  meeting. 

"Mr  Garrison,  Wendell  Phillips,  Edmund  Quincy, 
Isaac  Hopper,  Francis  Jackson,  Frederick  Douglass,  and 
other  faithful  servants  of  the  cause,  were  present  on  the 
platform. 

"  I  saw  friends  here  and  there  among  the  audience.  I 
was  surprised  to  recognize  there  a  son  of  Judge  Kane  of 
this  city  (afterwards  Col.  T.  Kane).  I  had  some  previous 
acquaintance  with  him,  and  knew  him  to  be  a  young  man 
of  ardent  temperament,  open  to  generous  ideas.  I  sup- 
posed then,  and  still  suppose,  that  he  was  drawn  there 
accidentally  by  curiosity.  After  a  prayer  by  the  Rev. 
Henry  Grew,  Mr  Garrison  made  the  opening  speech, 
strong,  bold,  and  characteristic. 

"  He  had  spoken  only  a  few  moments  when  he  was  in- 
terrupted by  what  sounded  like  a  burst  of  applause  ;  but 
as  there  was  nothing  special  to  call  it  forth,  and  as  it 
proceeded  from  one  little  portion  of  the  audience,  I  asked 
Wendell  Phillips,  who  sat  next  to  me,  wliat  it  meant. 


30 


'  It  means,'  he  said,  *  that  there  is  to  be  a  row.'  The 
interruption  was  repeated  again  and  again.  A  voice 
shouted  some  rude  questions  to  Mr  Garrison. 

"Mr  Garrison  bore  himself  with  the  serenity  of  a 
summer's  evening,  answering :  '  My  friend,  if  you  will 
wait  till  I  get  through,  I  will  give  you  the  information 
you  ask  for,'  He  succeeded  in  finishing  his  speech.  I 
was  to  speak  next.  But  the  instant  Mr  Garrison  ended, 
there  came  down  upon  the  platform  from  the  gallery 
which  was  connected  with  it,  an  individual,  with  a  com- 
pany of  roughs  at  his  back,  who  proved  to  be  no  less  a 
person  than  the  then  well-known  Isaiah  Rynders.  He 
began  shouting  and  raving. 

"  I  was  not  aware  of  being  under  any  apprehension  of 
personal  violence.  We  were  all  like  General  Jackson's 
cotton-bales  at  New  Orleans.  Our  demeanor  made  it 
impossible  for  the  rioters  to  use  any  physical  force  against 
us.  Young  Kane,  however,  leaped  upon  the  platform, 
and,  pressing  through  to  me,  in  a  tone  of  great  excite- 
ment, exclaimed  :  '  They  shall  not  touch  a  hair  of  your 
head !'  Mr  Garrison  said  to  Rynders  in  the  quietest 
manner  conceivable,  '  You  ought  not  to  interrupt  us.  We 
go  upon  the  principle  of  hearing  everybody.  If  you  wish 
to  speak,  I  will  keep  order,  and  you  shall  be  heard.'  But 
Rynders  was  not  in  a  state  of  mind  to  listen  to  reason.  He 
had  not  come  there  for  that,  but  to  break  up  the  meeting. 

"  The  Hutehinsons,  who  were  wont  to  sing  at  the  Anti- 
slavery  meetings,  were  in  the  gallery,  and  they  attempted 
to  raise  a  song,  to  soothe  the  savages  with  music.  But  it 
was  of  no  avail.  Rynders  drowned  their  fine  voices  with 
noise  and  shouting.  The  chief  of  the  police  came  upon 
the  platform,  and  asked  Mr  Garrison  whether  he  desired 
him  to  arrest  and  remove  Rynders  &  Co.  Mr  Garrison 
answered  :  '  We  desire  nothing  of  you.  We  can  take 
care  of  ourselves.     You  probably  know  your  duty.'    The 


31 


officer  did  nothing.  In  this  scene  of  confusion,  young 
Kane  became  intensely  excited.  He  rushed  up  to 
Rynders,  and  shook  his  fist  in  his  face.  He  said  to  me 
with  the  deepest  emphasis :  '  If  he  touches  Mr  Garrison, 
I'll  kill  him !'  But  Mr  Garrison's  composure  was  more 
than  a  coat  of  mail.  Rynders,  indisposed  to  speak  him- 
self, brought  forward  a  man  to  speak  for  him  and  his 
party.  Mr  Francis  Jackson  and  I  were,  the  while,  hold- 
ing young  Kane  down  in  his  seat  to  keep  him  from 
breaking  out  into  some  act  of  violence.  He  was  the  most 
dangerous  element  on  our  side.  Kynders's  substitute 
professed  a  willingness  that  I  should  speak  first  (I  was 
down  on  the  placards  to  follow  Mr  Garrison),  provided 
I  did  not  make  a  long  speech. 

"  Accordingly,  I  spoke  my  little,  anxiously  prepared 
word.  I  never  recall  that  hour  without  blessing  myself 
that  I  was  called  to  speak  precisely  at  that  moment.  At 
any  other  stage  of  the  proceedings,  it  would  have  been 
wretchedly  out  of  place. 

"  As  it  was,  my  speech  fitted  in  almost  as  well  as  if  it 
had  been  impromptu,  although  a  sharp  eye  might  easily 
have  discovered  that  I  was  speaking  memoriter.  Rynders 
interrupted  me  again  and  again,  exclaiming  that  I  lied, 
that  I  was  personal,  but  he  ended  with  applauding  me ! 
Rynders's  man  then  came  forward,  rather  dull  and  tire- 
some in  speech.  It  was  his  own  friends  who  interrupted 
him  occasionally,  Mr  Garrison  calling  them  to  order. 

"  His  argument  was,  that  the  blacks  are  not  human 
beings.  Mr  Garrison  whispered  to  me  while  he  was 
speaking,  that  the  speaker  had  formerly  been  a  com- 
positor in  the  office  of  the  Liberator. 

"  He  ended  at  last,  and  then  Frederick  Douglass  was 
loudly  called  for.  Mr  Douglass  came  forward,  cxcpii- 
sitely  neat  in  his  dress. 

"  '  The  gentleman  who  has  just  spoken,'  ho  began,  '  has 


32 


undertaken  to  prove  that  the  blacks  are  not  human 
beings.  He  has  examined  our  whole  conformation,  from 
top  to  toe.  I  cannot  follow  him  in  his  argument.  I  will 
assist  him  in  it,  however.  I  offer  myself  for  your  exami- 
nation. Am  I  a  man?'  To  this  interrogatory  instantly 
there  came  from  the  audience  a  thunderous  affirma- 
tive. Ryuders  was  standing  right  by  the  side  of  Mr 
Douglass,  and  when  the  response  died  away,  he  exclaimed 
in  a  hesitating  way :  '  But  you're  not  a  black  man !' 
'Then,'  retorted  Douglass,  'I'm  your  brother.'  'Ah, — 
ah,'  said  Eynders,  hesitatingly,  '  only  half  brother.'  The 
effect  upon  the  audience  need  not  be  described ;  it  may 
readily  be  imagined.  Mr  Douglass  then  went  on,  com- 
plaining of  Horace  Greeley,  who  had  recently  said  in  his 
paper  that  the  blacks  did  nothing  for  themselves.  '  When 
I  first  came  North,'  said  Mr  Douglass,  '  I  went  to  the 
most  decided  Anti-slavery  merchant  in  the  North,  and 
sought  employment  on  a  ship  he  was  building,  and  he  told 
me  that  if  he  were  to  give  me  work,  every  white  opera- 
tive would  quit,  and  yet  Mr  Greeley  finds  fault  with  us 
that  we  do  not  help  ourselves !'  This  criticism  of  Greeley 
pleased  Kynders,  who  bore  that  gentleman  no  good  will, 
and  he  added  a  word  to  Douglass's  against  Greeley.  '  I 
am  happy,'  said  Douglass,  '  to  have  the  assent  of  my  half 
brother  here^  pointing  to  Rynders,  and  convulsing  the 
audience  with  laughter.  After  this,  Rynders,  finding  how 
he  Was  played  with,  took  care  to  hold  his  peace;  but  some 
one  of  Rynders's  company  in  the  gallery  undertook  to  in- 
terrupt the  speaker.  '  It's  of  no  use,'  said  Mr  Douglass ; 
'  Tve  Captain  Rynders  here  to  bach  me.'  '  We  were  born 
here,'  he  went  on  to  say,  '  we  have  made  the  clothes  that 
you  wear,  and  the  sugar  that  you  put  into  your  tea,  and  we 
mean  to  stay  here  and  do  all  we  can  for  you.'  '  Yes !'  cried 
a  voice  from  the  gallery,  '  and  you'll  cut  our  throats !' 
'  No,'  said  the  speaker,  '  we'll  only  cut  your  hair.'     When 


33 


the  laughter  ceased,  Mr  Douglass  proceeded  to  say : 
*  We  mean  to  stay  here,  and  do  all  we  can  for  every  one, 
be  he  a  man,  or  be  he  a  monkey,'  accompanying  these 
last  words  with  a  wave  of  his  hand  towards  the  quarter 
whence  the  interruption  had  come.  He  concluded  with 
saying  that  he  saw  his  friend,  Samuel  Ward,  present,  and 
he  would  ask  him  to  step  forward.  All  eyes  were  instantly 
turned  to  the  back  of  the  platform,  or  stage  rather,  so 
dramatic  was  the  scene,  and  there,  amidst  a  group,  stood 
a  large  man,  so  black  that,  as  Wendell  Phillips  said, 
when  he  shut  his  eyes,  you  could  not  see  him.  Had  I 
observed  him  before,  I  should  have  wondered  what 
brought  him  there,  accounting  him  as  fresh  from  Africa. 
He  belonged  to  the  political  wing  of  the  Abolition  party 
(Gerritt  Smith's),  and  had  wandered  into  the  meeting, 
never  expecting  to  be  called  upon  to  speak.  At  the  call 
of  Frederick  Douglass,  he  came  to  the  front,  and,  as  he 
approached,  Rynders  exclaimed  :  '  Well,  this  is  the  origi- 
nal nigger!'  '  I've  heard  of  the  magnanimity  of  Captain 
Rynders,'  said  Ward,  '  but  the  half  has  not  been  told  me !' 
And  then  he  went  on  with  a  noble  voice,  and  his  speech 
was  such  a  strain  of  eloquence  as  I  never  heard  excelled 
before  or  since. 

" '  There  are  more  than  fifty  people  here,'  said  he, 
'  who  may  remember  me  as  a  little  black  boy  running 
about  the  streets  of  New  York.  I  have  always  been 
called  nigger,  and  the  only  consolation  that  has  been 
offered  me  for  being  called  nigger  was,  that,  when  I  die 
and  go  to  heaven,  I  shall  be  white.  If — and  here,  with 
an  earnestness  of  tone  and  manner  that  thrilled  one  to 
the  very  marrow,  he  continued — '  If  I  cannot  go  to  heav- 
en as  black  as  God  made  me,  let  me  go  down  to  hell,  and 
dwell  with  the  devils  forever !' 

"  The  effect  was  beyond  description. 

"  *  This  gentleman,'  he  said,  '  who  denies  our  humanity, 


34 


has  examined  us  scientifically,  but  I  know  something  of 
anatomy.  I  have  kept  school,  and  I  have  had  pupils, 
from  the  jet  black  up  to  the  soft  dissolving  views,  and 
I've  seen  white  boys  with  retreating  foreheads  and  pro- 
jecting jaws,  and,  as  Dickens  says,  in  Nicholas  Nickleby, 
of  Smike,  you  might  knock  here  all  day,'  tapping  his 
forehead,  '  and  find  nobody  at  home.'  In  this  strain,  he 
went  on,  ruling  the  large  audience  with  Napoleonic  power. 
Coal-black  as  he  was,  he  was  an  emperor,  pro  tempore. 

"  When  he  ceased  speaking,  the  time  had  expired  for 
which  the  Tabernacle  was  engaged,  and  we  had  to  ad- 
journ. Never  was  there  a  grander  triumph  of  intelli- 
gence, of  mind,  over  brute  force.  Two  colored  men,  whose 
claim  to  be  considered  human  was  denied,  had,  by  mere 
force  of  intellect,  overwhelmed  their  maligners  with  con- 
fusion. As  the  audience  was  thinning  out,  I  went  down 
on  the  floor  to  see  some  friends  there.  Rynders  came 
by.  I  could  not  help  saying  to  him,  'How  shall  we 
thank  you  for  what  you  have  done  for  us  to-day  ?'  '  Well,' 
said  he,  '  I  do  not  like  to  hear  my  country  abused,  but 
that  last  thing  that  you  said,  that's  the  truth.'  That  last 
thing  was,  I  believe,  a  simple  assertion  of  the  right  of  the 
people  to  think  and  speak  freely. 

"Judging  by  his  physiognomy  and  his  scriptural  name 
Isaiah,  I  took  Captain  Rynders  to  be  of  Yankee  descent. 
Notwithstanding  his  violent  behavior,  he  yet  seemed  to 
be  a  man  accessible  to  the  force  of  truth.  I  found  that 
Lucretia  Mott  had  the  same  impressions  of  him.  She 
saw  him  a  day  or  two  afterwards  in  a  restaurant  on 
Broadway,  and  she  sat  down  at  his  table,  and  entered 
into  conversation  with  him.  As  he  passed  out  of  the 
restaurant,  he  asked  Mr  McKim,  who  was  standing  there, 
waiting  for  Mrs  Mott,  whether  Mrs  Mott  were  his  mother. 
Mr  McKim  replied  in  the  negative.  '  She's  a  good  sen- 
sible woman,'  said  Rynders. 


35 


"  Never  before  or  since  have  I  been  so  deeply  moved 
as  on  that  occasion.  Depths  were  stirred  in  me  never 
before  reached.  For  days  afterwards,  when  I  under- 
took to  tell  the  story,  my  head  instantly  began  to  ache. 
Mr  Garrison  said,  if  the  papers  would  only  faithfully 
report  the  scene,  it  would  revolutionize  public  senti- 
ment. As  it  was,  they  heaped  all  sorts  of  ridicule  upon 
us.  I  cheerfully  accepted  my  share,  entirely  willing  to 
pass  for  a  fool  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  It  was  a  cheap 
price  to  pay  for  the  privilege  of  witnessing  such  a  triumph. 
I  was  taken  quite  out  of  myself.  I  came  home,  stepping 
like  Malvolio.  I  had  shared  in  the  smile  of  Freedom, 
the  belle  and  beauty  of  the  world. 

"  A  day  or  two  after  my  return  home,  I  met  one  of  my 
parishioners  in  the  street,  and  stopped  and  told  him  all 
about  my  New  York  visit.  He  listened  to  me  with  a 
forced  smile,  and  told  me  that  there  had  been  some 
thought  of  calling  an  indignation  meeting  of  the  church 
to  express  the  mortification  felt  at  my  going  and  mixing 
myself  up  with  such  people.  I  had  hardly  given  a 
thought  to  the  effect  at  home,  so  full  was  I  of  the  interest 
and  glory  of  the  occasion.  I  ought  to  have  preached  on 
the  Sunday  following  from  the  words  :  '  He  has  gone  to  be 
a  guest  with  a  man  ivho  is  a  sinner  !'  " 


MEETING 

OF  TIIK 

IN  PHILADELPHIA, 

HELD  IN  THE  CHURCH,  TENTH  AND  LOCUST  STREETS, 

JANUARY     12,     1875, 

IN  COMMEMORATION  OF  THE 

FIFTIETH      ANNIVERSAEY 

OF 

Eev.    W.    H.    FURNESS,    D.D., 

AS    PASTOR    OF    THEIR   CHURCH. 


39 


On  the  evening  of  January  12th,  1875,  the  meeting 
of  the  First  Unitarian  Society,  in  commemoration  of  the 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  pastorate  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Fur- 
ness,  was  held  in  the  church. 

The  following  ministers  were  present : 

Key.  Dr.  John  H.  Morison,  Key.  K.  R.  Shippen, 

Rev.  Dr.  S.  K.  Lothrop,  Rev.  Wm.  O.  White, 
Rev  Dr.  James  Freeman  Clarke.Rev.  J.  F.  AV.  Ware, 

Rev.  Dr.  James  T.  Thompson,  Rev.  Wm.  C.  Gannett, 

Rev.  Dr.  C.  A.  Bartol,  Rev.  E.  H.  Hall, 

Rev.  Dr.  H.  W.  Bellows,  Rev.  J.  W.  Chadwick, 

Rev.  Dr.  A.  P.  Putnam,  Rev.  Thos,  J.  Mumford, 

Rev.  F.  Israel,  Rev.  C.  G.  Ames. 

The  church  was  profusely  but  tastefully  hung  with 
festoons  of  evergreen ;  on  the  wall,  behind  the  pulpit, 
was  a  large  cross  ;  among  the  festoons  which  overhung  it 
were  the  figures  "  1825  "  and  "  1875  "  in  white  and  green 
flowers ;  while  in  front  of  the  23ulpit,  covering  the  com- 
munion table  and  all  the  approaches  to  it,  were  growing 
tropical  jjlants,  amid  which  was  a  profusion  of  vases, 
baskets,  and  bouquets  of  natural  flowers,  with  smilax 
distributed  here  and  there  in  delicate  friuaes  or  festoons. 


40 


The  regular  quartette  choir  of  the  church,  consisting 

of 

Mrs.  W.  D.  Dutton,       ....  Soprano, 

Mrs.  Isaac  Ashmead,  Jr.,     .         .         •  Contralto, 

Mr.  E.  Dillingham,        ....  Tenor, 

Mr.  F.  G.  Cauffman,      ....  Bass, 

was  on  this  occasion  assisted  by 

Miss  Cassidy,  Miss  Jennie  Cassidy, 

Miss  Cooper,  Mrs.  Egberts, 

Mr.  a.  H.  Kosewig,  Mr.  W.  W.  Gilchrist, 

under  the  direction  of  Mr.  W.  D.  Dutton,  organist  of  the 
church. 


PROCEEDINGS, 


At  half-past  seven  o'clock  the  exercises  of  the  evening 
commenced,  as  follows: 

Music. 

Tenor  solo  and  chorus, Mendelssohn. 

"Oh,  come,  let  us  worship,"  from  95th  Psalm. 

Mr.  Henry  Winsor,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of 
Arrangements,  in  opening  the  meeting  made  the  follow- 
ing remarks: 

The  occasion  of  our  meeting  here  this  evening  is  so 
well  known  to  all  present  that  there  is  no  need  of  any 
formal  announcement  of  it.  We  thought  some  time  ago 
that  this  anniversary  of  our  pastor's  ordination,  when 
the  half  century  of  his  ministration  here  is  complete, 
ought  to  be  in  some  way  marked  and  commemorated  ; 
and  as  one  of  the  things  for  that  purpose, — as  the  best 
means  perhaps  to  that  end,  we  invited  friends  in  Now 
England  and  elsewhere  to  l)e  witli  us  liere  to-night ;  and 
I  am  glad  to  say  that  some  of  them  liave  come ;  as  many 
perhaps  as  we  had  reason  to  expect  at  this  inclement 
season. 

6 


42 


And  now,  speaking  for  this  Society,  I  want  to  say  to 
them  that  their  presence  is  a  special  joy  to  us  ;  a  greater 
joy  than  it  could  be  on  a  similar  occasion  to  any  society 
in  New  England;  for  there  Unitarians  are  at  home,  and 
each  society  has  many  neighbors  with  whom  it  can  com- 
mune, and  to  whom  it  can  look  for  sympathy,  and,  if 
need  be,  for  assistance.  But  this  Society  of  Unitarian 
Christians  has  long  been  alone  in  this  great  city,  having 
no  connection  with  any  religious  society  here  and  com- 
muning with  none.  And  so,  as  I  said,  your  presence  on 
this  occasion  is  a  real  joy  to  us,  and,  on  behalf  of  the 
Society,  I  heartily  thank  you  for  it.  But  we  are  here — 
we  of  the  congregation  are  here — not  to  speak  but  to 
listen ;  and  I  will  now  ask  Dr.  Morison,  of  Massachusetts, 
to  pray  for  us. 

Prayer  by  Kev.  Dr.  John  H.  Morison. 

Almighty  and  most  merciful  Father,  Ave  beseech  Thee 
to  open  our  hearts  to  all  the  gracious  and  hallowed  asso- 
ciations of  this  hour.  Help  us  so  to  enter  into  the  spirit 
of  this  hour,  that  all  holy  influences  may  be  around  us,  that 
our  hearts  may  be  touched  anew,  that  we  may  be  brought 
together  more  tenderly,  and  lifted  up,  with  a  deeper  grati- 
tude and  reverence,  to  Thee,  the  Fountain  of  all  good,  the 
Giver  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift.  We  thank  Thee, 
most  merciful  Father,  for  the  ministry  which  has  been  mod- 
estly carrying  on  its  beneficent  work  here  through  these 
fifty  years.  We  thank  Thee  for  all  the  lives  which  have 
been  helped  by  it  to  see  and  to  do  Thy  will,  and  which 
have  been  made  more  beautiful  and  holy  by  being  brought 
into  quicker  sympathies  with  whatever  is  beautiful  in  the 
world  without,  and  whatever  is  lovely  in  the  world  within. 
We  thank  Thee  for  the  inspiring  words  which  have  been 
here  spoken,  brought  home  to  the  consciences  of  this  con- 


43 


gregation  by  the  life  which  stood  behind  them,  to  make 
men  more  earnest  to  search  after  what  is  true  and  to  do 
what  is  right.  We  thank  Thee,  our  Father  in  heaven,  for 
all  the  sweet  and  tender  and  far-reaching  hopes,  too  vast 
for  this  world,  Avhich  have  been  opening  here,  begun  upon 
the  earth  and  fulfilled  in  other  worlds,  in  more  imme- 
diate union  with  the  spirits  of  the  just  made  perfect;  and 
we  thank  Thee  for  all  the  solemn  memories  here,  through 
which  the  dear  and  honored  forms  of  those  to  whom  we 
who  are  aged  now  looked  up  once  as  to  our  fathers  and 
teachers  rise  again  transfigured  and  alive  before  us.  We 
thank  Thee  for  all  those  who  have  been  with  us  in  the 
ministry  of  Christ,  and  under  the  ministry  of  Christ, 
gracious  souls,  rejoicing  with  us  in  the  work  which  they 
and  we  have  been  permitted  to  do,  and  now,  as  our  trust 
is,  numbered  among  Thy  saints  in  glory  everlasting.  And 
while  we  here  render  thanks  to  Thee  for  the  ministry  so 
long  and  so  faithfully  fulfilled  in  this  place,  so  allying 
itself  to  all  that  is  sweet  in  our  human  affections,  to  all 
that  is  beautiful  in  the  world  of  nature  and  of  art,  to  all 
that  is  holy  in  the  domestic  relations,  to  all  that  is  strong 
and  true  in  the  defence  of  human  rights,  to  the  deepest 
human  interests  and  to  thy  love,  uniting  in  grateful  rev- 
erence for  the  past,  we  would  also  ask  Thy  holy  Spirit  to 
dwell  with  Thy  servant,  to  inspire  him  still  with  thoughts 
which  shall  keep  his  soul  always  young,  his  spirit  always 
fresh,  for  long  years  yet  to  come,  Avith  increasing  rii)e- 
ness  and  increasing  devotedness ;  and  that  he  may  long 
continue  to  walk  in  and  out  here  amid  the  silent  benedic- 
tions of  those  who  have  learned  to  love  and  honor  him. 

Our  Father  in  heaven,  help  us  that  whatever  may  be 
said  at  this  time  may  be  in  harmony  witli  the  occasion. 
While  we  here  rise  up  in  prayer  and  thanksgiving  to 
Thee,  grant  that  Thy  heavenly  benediction  may  rest  on 
pastor  and  people,  that  Tliy  loving  spirit  may  turn   our 


44 


human  wishes  into  heavenly  blessings,  and  that  the  words 
and  example  of  Him  who  came  into  the  world,  not  to 
do  his  own  will  but  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  him,  may 
comfort  and  strengthen  us ;  and  that  the  life  which  has 
been  such  an  inspiration  and  joy  and  quickening  power 
to  our  friend  may  be  to  all  of  us  still  an  incentive  to 
holiness,  and  an  inspiration  to  all  pure  and  heavenly 
thoughts. 

And  now,  most  merciful  Father,  grant  to  us  all,  that 
it  may  be  good  for  us  to  be  here — so  gracious  and  so 
hallowed  is  the  time — and  Thine,  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord,  be  the  kingdom  and  the  power  and  the  glory 
forever  and  ever.     Amen. 

Music. 

Soprano  solo  and  chorus,  ....     Spohr. 

"  How  lovely  are  thy  dwellings  fair  !" 

Mr.  Winsor  then  spoke  as  follows : 

At  the  ordination  of  Dr.  Furness,  fifty  years  ago,  the 
sermon  was  delivered  by  one  eminent  among  Unitarian 
Christians,  by  whom  his  memory  will  be  long  cherished 
and  honored,  Henry  Ware,  Jr.,  and  for  this  reason  I  ask 
to  speak  first  of  all  here  to-night  his  son,  Rev.  John  F. 
W.  Ware,  of  Boston,  Mass. 


Address  of  Rev.  John  F.  W.  Ware. 

Friends  of  this  Christian  Society:  I  have  no 
other  claim  to  be  standing  here  to-night  and  participating 
in  your  service  than  the  one  just  mentioned — that  I  am 
the  son  of  the  man  who,  fifty  years  ago  this  day,  preached 
the   sermon   at  the   ordination    of  his    friend,  William 


45 


Henry  Furness,  aud  what  may  seem  to  you  my  fitness  is 
indeed  my  unfitness.  Proud  as  I  am  in  being  the  son  of 
a  man  so  much  honored,  loved,  and  remembered,  I  never 
feel  it  quite  right  in  any  way  to  try  to  represent  him,  and 
had  I  known  that  this  was  to  be  a  part  of  the  conse- 
quences of  my  journey  I  think  I  should  have  stayed  at 
home. 

But  during  the  hours  that  I  have  been  on  the  way  my 
thoughts  have  been  busy  with  that  fifty  years  ago,  think- 
ing of  the  goodly  company  who,  "in  the  winter  wild," 
came  down  here  from  New  England  that  they  might 
plant  this  vine  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord.  And  none 
of  them  who  came  at  that  time  to  plant  are  permitted 
to  be  here  to-night  to  help  us  gather  the  rich  and  ripened 
clusters.  It  showed,  I  think,  the  love  that  these  men 
had  for,  and  the  confidence  that  they  had  in,  their  young 
friend,  that  they  should  have  come,  in  that  inclement 
time,  this  long  journey  by  stage,  taking  them  days  and 
nights  of  discomfort  as  it  did.  I  think  that  there  was 
no  sweeter  household  word  in  that  dear  old  home  of  mme 
than  "  Brother  Furness  " — the  old-fashioned  way  in  which 
ministers  used  to  talk  of  one  another,  which  we  of  to- 
day have  forgotten.  In  those  times  it  meant  something ; 
to-day  we  don't  feel  as  if  it  did,  so  we  have  dropped  it. 
I  think  there  was  no  name  so  sweet  outside  of  the  closest 
family  ties  as  that  name,  and  we  children  grew — my  sis- 
ter and  myself— to  have  always  the  deepest  love  for  the 
man  that  our  father  loved ;  and  as  time  went  by,  and 
young  manhood  came,  I  looked  forward  to  the  hearing 
of  the  tones  of  that  voice,  and  the  seeing  of  that  smile, 
and  the  touching  of  that  hand,  as  among  the  bright  and 
pleasant  things— a  sort  of  condescending,  it  always  seemed 
to  me  to  be,  of  one  who  was  in  a  sphere  higher  up  than  I 
ever  hoped  to  climb  to.  Then,  as  I  grew  older,  1  re- 
member the  audacity  with  which  I  offered  him  "a  labor 


46 


of  love  "  in  this  church,  and  I  remember  I  trembled  after 
I  had  done  it ;  and  I  remember  how  he  thanked  me,  and 
how  he  criticized  me,  and  the  criticizing  was  a  great  deal 
better  than  the  thanking.  It  was  very  deep ;  it  meant  a 
good  deal,  and  it  has  not  been  forgotten. 

Fortunate  man !  he  who  came  into  this  city  fifty  years 
ago ;  fortunate  in  the  place,  and  the  time  of  his  birth  ; 
fortunate  in  the  education  he  had  had  and  the  faith  he  had 
imbibed  ;  fortunate  in  the  place  he  had  gone  to,  not  to  be 
coddled  among  friends,  emasculated  by  being  surrounded 
by  those  Avho  thought  just  as  he  did,  but  thrown  out  by 
God's  will  into  this  outpost,  where  he  could  grow,  as  we 
cannot  where  we  are  surrounded  by  those  of  our  own 
preference  and  method  of  thinking;  fortunate  in  the 
bent  of  his  study,  in  the  opportunity  to  unfold  the  beau- 
tiful life  of  Jesus ;  fortunate  in  being  of  those  who 
stood  up  for  the  slave;  fortunate  in  having  lived  to  see 
the  issue  of  the  work  that  his  heart  was  engaged  in ;  for- 
tunate in  being  now  crowned  by  the  love  and  benediction 
of  his  people,  and  retiring  calmly  and  sweetly  from  the 
work  of  life,  still  to  dwell  among  those  \vho  have  loved 
him  these  years  long.  Oh,  fortunate  man!  God  bless 
him,  and  continue  him  here  many  years  yet,  your  joy, 
your  companion,  your  guide,  and  your  friend. 

Not  many  of  us  shall  see  our  fiftieth  anniversary,  for 
more  and  more  this  profession  of  ours  becomes  a  thing 
of  yesterday,  to-day,  and  to-morrow  alone.  Very  few  oc- 
casions there  will  be  again  to  meet  together  to  celebrate 
the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  a  minister's  settlement. 

Let  us  treasure  the  memory  of  this  occasion.  Let  it 
go  with  us  who  are  here  to  our  homes  and  our  w^orks, 
and  may  it  remain  here  with  you  a  thought  and  memory 
and  a  help ;  and  as,  in  the  beginning,  this  church  drew 
its  life  and  its  first  impulse  through  a  little  band  of 
sturdy  and  steady  and  upright  laymen,  so  in  the  time 


47 

that  lies  before  you,  lay  friends  of  this  Society,  remem- 
ber that  it  is  not  the  past  upon  which  you  can  lean — the 
work  that  has  been  done  by  the  servant  who  retires.  It 
is  the  future  in  which  you  are  to  hope,  and  the  charac- 
ter of  that  future  must  be  largely  your  work.  With 
this  simple  word,  knowing  that  there  are  many  gentle- 
men here  who  are  to  speak,  and  will  speak  more  wisely 
and  properly  than  I,  I  ask  Mr.  Gannett  to  follow  me. 


Rev.  Dr.  Furness  then  came  forward,  and  said  : 

My  dear  Friends  :  I  am  very  doubtful  about  the 
propriety  of  my  being  present  on  this  occasion,  not  be- 
cause any  deserts  of  mine  would  call  forth  any  extrava- 
gant eulogium,  but  because  I  know  the  kind  hearts  of  my 
friends.  They  would  say  things  which  would  make  me 
very  uncomfortable.  But  just  before  I  came  from  home 
I  got  a  letter  from  our  friend,  Mr.  Weld,  minister  of  the 
church  in  Baltimore.  He  has  sent  us  from  the  churcli  in 
Baltimore  two  communion  cups — silver  cups — as  a  token 
of  kind  fellowship  and  recognition  of  this  anniversary 
from  the  church  in  Baltimore.  They  wished  to  have  an 
inscription  placed  on  them,  but  they  had  no  time ;  in- 
dicating that  they  were  gifts  from  the  church  in  Balti- 
more. So  I  thought  I  would  bring  them  down  without 
delay,  and  put  tliem  upon  the  table,  if  tlicre  was  any  room 
for  them. 

In  all  the  kind  words  which  my  brethren  say  al)()ut 
me,  I  think  there  is  a  good  deal  put  in.  Just  like  the  old 
man  who  took  notes  of  his  minister's  sermons,  and  when 
he  read  them  over  to  the  minister,  the  minister  said, 
"  Stop  !  stop  !  I  did  not  say  that."  "  I  know  you  didn't," 
he  said ;  "  but  I  put  it  in  to  make  sense  of  it."  So,  I 
think,  on  this  occasion,  there  will  be  a  good  deal  put 


48 


in.  If  you  will  allow  me,  I  will  go  and  sit  down  at 
the  other  end  of  the  room,  and  if  they  get  a  little  too 
strong  I  can  run  out.  I  was  entreated  to  come  here 
and  show  myself  I  am  very  grateful  to  you  for  your 
kind  attention. 


Address  of  William  C.  Gannett. 

Like  Mr.  Ware,  I  only  speak  as  the  son  of  the  right 
man.  The  right  man  stood  by  Dr.  Furuess'  side  fifty 
years  ago,  and  gave  him  the  right  hand  of  fellowship.  I 
know  not  whether  there  are  any  here  that  saw  the  sight 
or  heard  the  words ;  perhaps  of  all  he  only.  The  air 
seems  full,  to  me,  at  least,  of  the  memories  of  the  other 
one.  And  to  you  who  sit  and  listen,  the  air  must  seem 
full  of  the  very  spirit  of  communion  that  these  cups  just 
given  symbolize.  There  ought  to  have  been  a  white  head 
here ;  there  ought  to  have  been  dark  eyes ;  there  ought 
to  have  been  a  ringing  voice ;  there  ought  to  have  been 
a  voice  that  would  have  been  full  of  tenderness  as  he 
stood  at  this  side  of  the  fifty  years, — as  he  then  stood  at 
the  other  side, — and  said  the  words  of  an  old  man's  fel- 
lowship. He  would  to-day,  as  then,  have  been  just  six 
months  Dr.  Furness'  senior  in  the  work.  I  suppose 
one  can  imagine  anybody,  any  old  person,  as  young, 
easier  than  he  can  his  own  father  or  his  own  mother.  I 
cannot  conceive  the  one  whom  I  call  father  standing  here, 
or  in  the  place  which  this  church  represents,  as  a  young 
man  of  twenty  four  speaking  to  a  young  man  of  twenty- 
three,  and  bidding  him  welcome  into  the  work  which  he 
called  partaking  in  the  work  of  heaven ;  bidding  him 
welcome  into  its  pleasures ;  bidding  him  welcome  into 
its  pains, — for  he  had  been  six  mouths  a  minister,  and 
in  those  first  six  months  of  a  minister's  life  he  knows  a 


49 


great  deal  of  the  pains  that  accompany  it.  It  so  hap- 
pened that  just  after  I  got  your  kind  invitation  to  come, 
I  happened  to  lay  my  hand  upon  the  manuscript  of  that 
right  hand  of  fellowship,  and  not  having  time  to  read  it 
then,  I  brought  it  with  me  in  the  cars ;  and  only  three  or 
four  hours  ago  I  was  reading  the  very  words,  and  read- 
ing from  the  very  paper  which,  fifty  years  ago,  was  held 
and  read  from,  and  to  which  Dr.  Furness  listened.  It 
does  seem  to  me  as  if  the  reader  were  here  now  to  say, 
"  God  bless  you,  old  friend,  for  having  stood  ever  faithful 
to  the  end."  I  almost  think  he  is  saying  it ;  and  if  he 
is,  I  know  it  comes  with  just  that  feeling:  "God  bless 
you,  old  friend,  for  having  stood  faithful  to  the  end  ;  for 
having  fulfilled  all  and  more  than  all  the  words  that  then 
I  said  to  you."  And  that  is  all  I  have  to  say.  I  was 
asked  to  pass  the  word  along  to  another  boy  of  the  old 
men.  Your  father  and  my  father  and  Dr.  Hall  were 
classmates.     Will  Edward  Hall  speak  for  his  father  ? 


Address  of  Rev.  Edward  H.  Hall,  of 

Worcester,  Mass. 

I  hardly  know  to  what  I  owe  this  pleasure,  for  it  is  a 
great  one  to  me,  of  joining  my  thoughts  with  others  to- 
night, at  so  early  a  point  of  our  gathering.  I  believe 
my  claim  is  a  double  one,  and  I  am  willing  and  anxious 
to  make  it  as  large  as  possible,  both  as  the  successor  of 
one  who,  fifty  years  ago,  was  present  to  give  the  charge 
to  the  people,  and,  still  tenderer  to  me,  the  claim  which 
has  just  been  presented  by  the  friend  who  i)receded  me. 
In  that  class,  which  I  suppose  stands  eminent  among  the 
graduating  classes  of  Cambridge  for  tlie  number  of  men 
it  has  sent  into  our  ministry,  to  say  notliing  of  tlieir 
quality,  were  the   three  whose   names   have  just   been 

7 


50 


brought  together,  who  had  no  greater  pride,  I  believe, 
than  to  have  their  names  in  common.  And  it  is  for  me 
one  of  the  pleasantest  memories  which  this  hour  brings 
that  they  were  not  only  classmates — my  father  and  our 
father  to-night — but  that  for  so  long  a  time,  through  their 
college  course,  they  were  in  closest  intimacy  as  room- 
mates. And  yet  I  should  be  sorry  to  think  that  this  was 
my  only  connection  with  this  occasion.  It  was  said,  I 
remember,  of  one  of  the  finest  and  noblest  of  our  officers 
killed  in  the  war,  that  of  the  many  who  had  met  him, 
each  one  seemed  to  feel  that  he  had  made  a  special  dis- 
covery of  that  man's  noble  character  and  fine  traits,  so 
did  the  discovery  overpower  him,  and  so  sure  Avas  he  that 
to  no  one  else  had  it  come  as  it  did  to  him ;  and  I  am  in- 
clined to  think  that  there  is  no  one  of  these  ministers 
here  to-night  who  does  not  feel  as  if  his  connection  with 
him  whom  we  meet  to-night  to  honor  was  something 
special,  as  if  the  inspiration  which  he  had  drawn  from 
that  source  was  one  which  no  one  but  himself  had  got. 
No  qualification  for  our  profession,  I  suppose,  is  higher 
than  the  power  of  historic  intuition ;  the  power  of  seeing 
things  as  they  were ;  of  reading  the  w^ords  and  seeing  be- 
hind them;  the  power  that  reproduces  the  past.  Our 
great  historians  are  those  who  read  the  past  in  that  way ; 
our  great  theologians  are  those  who  read  the  past  as  if 
it  were  present,  and  feel  a  personal  intercourse  with  those 
who  walked  and  spoke  in  those  early  days.  They  are 
the  holy  men  and  apostles  of  to-day ;  they  will  always 
be  the  apostles  to  the  end  of  time,  and  I  am  glad  to  feel 
that  out  of  our  numbers  has  come  one  whose  power  of 
divining  the  past  has  shown  itself  so  fine  and  true. 

I  can  hardly  help  speaking  about  another  feeling. 
I  am  impressed  to-night  by  the  difference,  the  vast  dif- 
ference, between  our  fathers  of  a  generation  ago  and 
us  who  are  upon  the  stage  to-day.     We  look  back  rev- 


51 


ereutly  to  them ;  perhaps  ehildreu  always  do  to  their 
fathers.  It  is  barely  possible  that  our  children  may  look 
upon  us  in  the  same  way.  We  look  upon  them  as  a 
group  of  men  set  apart  by  themselves — a  kind  of  priest- 
hood, conscious  of  the  sanctity  of  their  work.  A  sort  of 
moral  halo  encircles  their  heads  as  we  think  of  them,  and 
we  group  them  in  just  that  affectionate  way  to  which  our 
friend  before  me  has  alluded,  as  a  band  of  brothers.  Will 
this  generation  of  ministers  ever  look  to  their  successors 
as  they  appear  to  us  ?  I  cannot  believe  it.  That  will  not 
be  our  claim  upon  their  honor  or  their  regard.  Happy 
for  us  if  we  can  have  any  claim  upon  it ;  if  men  shall 
see  that  the  second  generation  of  ministers  took  bravely 
up  the  work  that  was  half  done,  uttered  the  words  that 
were  still  unspoken,  continued  in  the  path  which  the 
fathers  cannot  longer  tread,  and  proved  that  it  takes 
more  than  one  generation  to  do  the  work  which  Uni- 
tarianism  is  born  to  accomplish. 

But  I  have  no  more  claim  upon  your  time,  and  close 
by  introducing  to  you,  as  I  have  been  asked,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Lothrop,  of  Boston. 

Rev.  Dr.  S.  K.  Lothrop  spoke  as  follows : 

My  Christian  Friends  :  I  have  but  a  few  words  to 
say,  and  I  rise  to  say  these  simply  that  I  may  more 
fully  express  what  my  presence  here  implies,  my  deep 
sympathy  and  interest  in  this  occasion. 

There  are  scenes  and  events  in  life  which,  from  their 
simplicity  and  beauty,  and  the  moral  grandeur  whicli 
always  mingles  more  or  less  with  everything  sim])le  and 
beautiful,  can  gain  nothing  from  human  lips.  Eloquence 
can  coin  no  words  that  shall  impress  them  upon  the  heart 
and  conscience  more  deeply  than  they  impress  themselves. 
This  occasion  is  one  of  these  events.     We  meet  here  to- 


52 


night — this  company,  the  members  of  this  church,  these 
brethren  from  distant  and  different  parts  of  the  country 
— to  commemorate  fifty  years  of  faithful  and  devoted  ser- 
vice in  the  Christian  ministry,  and  rhetoric  can  add 
nothing  to  the  moral  dignity  and  grandeur  of  this  fact, 
that  is  not  contained  in  the  simplest  statement  or  expres- 
sion of  it.  We  meet  to  do  honor  and  reverence  to  one, 
who,  from  the  earliest  aspirations  of  his  youth  to  the  later 
aspirations  and  ever  enlarging  service  of  his  manhood, 
has  known  no  object  but  truth,  no  law  but  duty,  no 
master  but  conscience,  and  who,  under  the  inspiration  and 
guidance  of  these  has  wrought  a  noble  work  in  this  city, 
made  full  proof  of  his  ministry,  and  given  a  glorious 
illustration  of  the  power  of  that  faith,  "  which  is  the  vic- 
tory that  overcometh  the  world." 

The  Unitarian  Congregationalists  recognize  a  large 
personal  freedom  and  individuality.  Among  the  brethren 
present  and  all  called  by  our  name  who  are  absent,  there 
are  wide  differences  of  theological  thought  and  opinion  ; 
and  some  of  us  may  not  entirely  concur  in  all  the  con- 
clusions— the  result  of  Christian  thought  and  study — 
which  our  honored  brother,  the  pastor  of  this  church,  in 
his  fifty  years  of  noble  service,  may  have  presented  in 
this  pulpit  or  given  to  the  public  through  the  press.  But 
however  he  may  differ  from  him  on  some  points,  no  one 
who  has  read  what  he  has  published,  can  fail  to  perceive 
or  refuse  to  acknowledge  the  spirit  of  devout  reverence, 
love,  faith,  the  large  and  glorious  humanity  that  every- 
where breathe  in  his  words ;  while  every  one  familiar 
with  his  long  life-work  in  this  city,  every  one  who  has 
known  him  intimately,  had  opportunity  to  study  and  ob- 
serve his  character,  to  mark  its  mingled  firmness  and 
gentleness,  sw^eetness  and  strength,  its  martyr  spirit  ad- 
hering to  conscientious  convictions  and  carrying  them 
out  at  whatever  cost  or  sacrifice,  its  loyal  spirit,  faithful 


53 


to  Christ  and  truth  accordiog  to  honest  and  sincere  con- 
viction, every  one  who  knows  and  has  witnessed  how 
these  things  have  pervaded  and  animated  his  life,  char- 
acter, work,  cannot  fail  to  cherish  toward  him  a  senti- 
ment of  reverence  and  honor;  and  amid  all  differences  of 
opinion  there  may  be  between  us,  I  yield  to  no  one  in 
the  strength  and  sincerity  with  which  I  cherish  this  sen- 
timent in  my  own  heart.  When  I  visited  him  at  his 
house  to-day,  I  could  not  but  feel  that  while  years  had 
not  abated  one  jot  of  the  vigor  of  his  intellect  or  the 
warmth  of  his  heart,  they  had  added  largely  to  that 
something,  I  know  not  what  to  call  it,  that  indescribable 
charm,  which  has  given  him  a  place  in  every  heart  that 
has  ever  known  him,  and  made  us  his  brethren  (I  am 
only  uttering  what  they  will  all  acknowledge)  always 
disposed  to  sit  at  his  feet  in  love  and  admiration. 

I  am  one  of  the  oldest,  probably  the  oldest  of  our  min- 
isters present.  Dr.  Furness'  ordination  antedates  mine, 
which  occurred  in  February,  1829,  only  by  four  years 
and  a  month.  As  regards  term  of  service  my  name  is 
close  to  his  on  our  list  of  living  clergymen,  and  I  remem- 
ber, as  if  it  were  but  yesterday,  his  ordination  fifty  years 
ago  to-day,  and  can  distinctly  recall  the  deep  interest 
with  which  it  was  spoken  of  that  evening  in  the  family 
circle  of  the  late  Dr.  Kirkland  at  Cambridge,  of  which  I 
was  then  a  member.  I  had  but  slight  personal  acquaint- 
ance with  Dr.  Furness,  however,  till  thirteen  years  after 
this,  in  1838,  when  sufiering  from  ill  health  he  was  unable 
for  several  months  to  discharge  his  duties.  His  pulpit 
was  supplied  by  clergymen  from  Boston  and  the  neigh- 
borhood, and  as  he  had  many  loving  friends  and  warm 
admirers  in  Brattle  Square  Society,  they  were  very  will- 
ing to  release  me  for  six  weeks,  that  I  might  come  to 
Philadelphia  and  preach  for  him.  This  visit  and  service 
brought  me  into  more  intimate  acquaintance  with  him  tmd 


54 


this  Society.  The  pleasant  memories  of  that  period,  fresh 
in  my  heart  to  this  day,  were  prominent  among  the  mani- 
fold recollections  that  prompted,  nay,  constrained  me  to 
come  and  unite  my  sympathies  with  yours  on  this  occasion. 
It  is  a  glad  occasion,  yet  there  is  something  solemn  and 
sad  about  it.  Like  all  anniversaries,  it  has  a  double 
meaning,  makes  a  double  appeal  to  us.  It  gives  a  tongue 
to  memory,  calls  up  the  shadows  of  the  past,  brings  be- 
fore us  the  forms  of  those  we  have  loved  and  lost ;  we  see 
their  smiles ;  we  hear  their  voices  ;  and  as  I  stand  here 
to-night,  and  look  back  upon  those  fifty  years,  and  call 
to  mind  the  venerable  fathers  of  our  faith,  whom  I  knew 
and  loved  and  honored  in  the  early  days  of  my  profes- 
sional life,  Drs.  Bancroft,  Ripley,  Thayer,  Harris,  Pierce, 
Nichols  of  Portland,  Parker  of  Portsmouth,  Flint  of 
Salem,  and  bring  before  me  the  Boston  Association  when 
it  numbered  among  its  members  Channing,  Lowell,  Park- 
man,  Ware,  Greenwood,  Frothingham,  Pierpont,  Young, 
and  last,  though  not  least,  that  great  apostle  who  has 
just  departed.  Dr.  Walker,  I  feel  as  if  I  had  lived  a 
century,  and  was  a  very  old  man.  I  feel,  however,  that 
life  is  not  to  be  measured  by  years,  and  I  hope,  mean  al- 
ways to  try  to  keep  as  young,  bright,  joyous,  and  buoyant 
as  Dr.  Furness  seemed  this  morning  when  I  greeted  him 
in  his  own  house. 

I  sympathize  in  all  that  has  been  said  here  this  even- 
ing, especially  in  all  that  has  been  said  in  relation  to  the 
future  of  this  Society  and  its  honored  and  beloved  pas- 
tor. It  is  no  longer  a  secret,  I  believe,  that  he  intends 
to  ask  a  release  from  further  service.  I  am  sure,  my 
friends,  that  all  the  brethren  present  will  leave  with  you 
their  loving  benediction,  and  the  hope  that  something  of 
his  mantle  may  fall  upon  whoever  comes  to  try  to  fill  his 
place.  The  whole  of  that  mantle,  in  all  its  beauty, 
grandeur,  and  simplicity,  you  cannot  expect  any  man  to 


55 


have  or  wear ;  if  you  find  a  successor  wearing  a  goodly 
portion  of  it  you  will  have  great  reason  to  rejoice,  to 
thank  God  and  be  of  good  courage.  As  for  Dr.  Furness 
himself,  we  leave  with  him  our  gratitude  and  reverence, 
and  our  devout  wish  that  the  sweetest  serenity  and  peace 
and  moral  glory  may  mark  his  remaining  years ;  and  for 
ourselves,  who  have  come  from  far  and  near  to  hold  this 
jubilee  with  him,  we  all  hope  to  gather  here  to-night 
and  carry  away  with  us  on  the  morrow  memories,  in- 
spirations, influences  that  shall  quicken  us  to  fresh  zeal 
and  efibrt  in  our  several  spheres  of  work,  determined  to 
be  faithful  and  persevere  unto  the  end,  whether  that  end 
cover  twenty,  thirty  or  forty,  or,  as  may  be  the  case  with 
some  of  us,  fifty  years  of  professional  service. 

Kev.  Dr.  James  Freeman  Clarke,  of  Boston,  being 
called  upon  to  read  a  j)oem  written  for  the  occasion, 
spoke  as  follows : 

A  great  many  years  ago  I  was  journeying  from  Ken- 
tucky to  Boston,  and  passing  through  Philadelphia,  I 
could  not  deny  myself  the  pleasure  of  going  to  see  our 
dear  friend,  Mr.  Furness,  and  he  was  then  full  of  the 
thoughts  which  were  afterward  published  in  his  first 
book,  concerning  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  I  spent  the  whole 
morning  talking  with  him,  and  when  the  morning  was 
through,  said  he,  "  Stay  a  little  longer  ;"  and  I  said,  "  I 
will  wait  till  night  before  I  go;"  and  I  spent  the  after- 
noon talking  with  him,  and  when  the  night  came,  he  had 
not  finished  speaking,  and  I  had  not  finished  listening. 
So  I  spent  another  day.  We  talked  in  the  morning,  we 
talked  in  the  afternoon,  and  we  talked  in  the  evening.  I 
still  had  not  heard  all  I  wanted  to,  and  so  I  stayed  the 
third  day,  and,  of  course,  Brother  Furness  is  very  much 
associated  in  my  mind  with  his  studies  on  this  subject. 


56 


which  has  led  me  to  take  the  tone  which  you  will  find  in 
these  lines : 

Where  is  the  man  to  comprehend  the  Master, 
The  living  human  Jesus — He  who  came 

To  follow  truth  through  triumph  or  disaster, 
And  glorify  the  gallows  and  its  shame? 

No  passive  Christ,  yielding  and  soft  as  water  ; 

Sweet,  but  not  strong ;  with  languid  lip  and  eye ; 
A  patient  lamb,  led  silent  to  the  slaughter ; 

A  monkish  Saviour,  only  sent  to  die. 

Nor  that  result  of  Metaphysic  Ages ; 

Christ  claiming  to  be  God,  yet  man  indeed — 
Christ  dried  to  dust  in  theologic  pages  ; 

Our  human  brother  frozen  in  a  creed  ! 

But  that  all-loving  one,  whose  heart  befriended 
The  humblest  sufferer  under  God's  great  throne  ; 

While,  in  his  life,  humanity  ascended 

To  loftier  heights  than  earth  had  ever  known. 

All  whose  great  gifts  were  natural  and  human ; 

Loving  and  helping  all;  the  great,  the  mean  ; 
The  friend  of  rich  and  poor,  of  man  and  woman  ; 

And  calling  no  one  common  or  unclean. 

Most  lofty  truth  in  household  stories  telling. 
Which  to  the  souls  of  wise  and  simple  go  ; 

Forever  in  the  Father's  bosom  dwelling — 
Forever  one  with  human  hearts  below. 

Not  in  the  cloister,  or  professor's  study 
God  sets  the  teacher  for  this  work  apart, — 

But  where  the  life-drops,  vigorous  and  ruddy, 
Flow  from  the  heart  to  hand,  from  hand  to  heart. 


67 

He  only  rightly  understands  this  Saviour, 

"Who  walks  himself  the  same  highway  of  truth  ; 

Unfolding,  with  like  frank  and  bold  behavior, 
Such  earnest  manhood  from  such  spotless  youth. 

Whose  widening  sympathy  avoids  extremes, 
Who  loves  all  lovely  things,  afar,  anear — 

Who  still  respects  in  age  his  youthful  dreams. 
Untouched  by  skeptic-doubt  or  cynic-sneer. 

Who,  growing  older,  yet  grows  young  again. 
Keeping  his  youth  of  heart ;— whose  spirit  brave 

Follows  with  Jesus,  breaking  every  chain, 
And  bringing  liberty  to  every  slave. 

To  him,  to-night,  who,  during  fifty  years, 
For  truths  unrecognized  has  dared  the  strife, 

In  spite  of  fashion's  law  or  wisdom's  fears. 
We  come  to  thank  him  for  a  noble  life. 

He  needs  no  thanks,  but  will  accept  that  love. 

The  grateful  love,  inevitably  given 
To  those  who  waken  faith  in  things  above, 

And  mingle  with  our  days  a  light  from  heaven. 

And  most  of  all,  who  shows  us  how  to  find 
The  Great  Physician  for  all  earthly  ill— 

The  true  Reformer,  calm  and  bold  and  kind. 
Who  came  not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfil. 

And  thus  this  church  grows  into  holy  ground 

So  full  of  Jesus  that  our  souls  infer 
That  we,  like  Bunyan's  Pilgrim,  must  have  found 

At  last  "  The  House  of  the  Interpreter.'' 

Dr.  Clarke  called  upon  Ucv.  Dr.  Bartol  to  .<peak,  who 
said : 

My  Friends:  I  certainly  ought  in  all  .•sincerity,  and  1 
certainly  do  in  all  humility,  thank  the  coniinittee  for  in- 

8 


58 


viting  one,  so  devoid  of  all  conventional  virtue,  with  no 
place  in  any  conference,  standing  for  the  desert — yet  not 
quite,  I  think,  belonging  to  the  tribe  of  Ishmael,  for  my 
hand  is  against  no  man,  and  no  man's  hand,  I  think,  is 
against  me, — to  say  even  one  word.  But  let  me  tell  you 
there  is  good  ecclesiastical  blood  in  the  family.  I  throw 
myself  on  one  who  is  worthy,  I  am  sure,  and  ^^opular  in 
this  church,  a  cousin  by  blood.  I  think  there  is  a  good 
deal  of  vicarious  atonement  in  him;  and  I  hope  his 
righteousness  will  be  imputed  to  me,  thoagh  I  do  not 
mean  to  make  him  a  scapegoat  for  my  sins. 

Notwithstanding  what  my  brother  has  said,  I  shall  call 
him  not  only  brother  but  John  Ware;  and  because  of  what 
he  said  we  shall  all  be  convinced  that  this  is  a  real 
brotherhood  in  spirit  as  in  name  after  all.  I  call  it  a 
very  goodly  fellowship,  not  only  of  the  prophets  but  of 
the  people  to-night.  And  that  is  the  thought  that  comes 
into  my  mind  in  regard  to  it.  Here  our  brother  and 
father  Furness,  your  minister,  has  brought  all  these 
brethren  together  who  stand  in  thought  so  wide  apart. 
Is  it  not  a  real  fellowship?  I  need  not  mention  the 
names  to  show  you  how  wide  a  space  of  thought  they 
measure,  and  the  beauty  and  power  of  a  man's  fellow- 
ship. It  is  not  to  be  determined  by  the  number  of  his 
disciples  or  followers,  by  the  largeness  of  the  congrega- 
tion he  can  gather,  or  the  crowds  that  hang  on  his  lips ; 
but  by  the  measure  which  all  those  men,  be  they  more  or 
fewer,  make  in  the  world  of  ideas,  which  is  also  the  world 
of  love ;  for  a  man's  parallax,  that  twenty  friends  may 
make  for  him,  is  a  larger  parallax  than  a  million  friends 
may  make.  And  I  think  it  is,  in  spite  of  our  dear  friend's 
utter  modesty,  an  occasion  of  joy  with  him.  It  should 
be  an  occasion  of  joy  that  he  reaches  so  far  out  on  either 
hand,  and  gathers  such  a  company  together.  It  is  a  real 
fellowship,  a  real  brotherhood,  a  real  fatherhood ;  and  while 


59 


these  young  men  have  been  speaking — and  we  have  not 
begun  with  the  eldest,  even  to  the  Last,  but  have  begun 
the  other  way— it  seemed  to  me  as  if  the  almond  blossoms 
from  the  old  heads  which  we  remember,  as  well  as  see, 
have  been  dropping  upon  some  of  our  heads,  and  that 
they  have  shed  them  upon  us.  AVe  are  glad  for  that  fel- 
lowship.    It  is  rich  beyond  measure. 

I  had  a  letter  from  our  dear  Brother  Dewey.  He  says 
in  this  letter,  speaking  of  the  death  of  Dr.  Walker,  "  He 
seems  to  say  to  me,  *  Your  turn  next.'  "  Ah, "  sad  r  Did 
I  hear  that  word?  No,  not  sad.  Death  is  not  sad; 
departure  is  not  sad ;  ascending  is  not  sad.  Death  is 
nothing.  But  what  is  meant  by  our  thought?  I  said  to 
my  dear  friend,  Dr.  Bellows,  last  night  as  we  were  talking, 
"  How  strange  it  would  be,  when  we  came  each  one  of  us 
to  die,  to  find  that  death,  which  we  have  thought  so  much 
of,  is  nothing  to  think  of!  Death  at  last  and  for  the 
first  time  takes  everlasting  leave  of  us.  Death  will  just 
so  surely  depart  from  us  as  we  come  to  die.  And  in  the 
article  of  dying  it  will  depart." 

It  is  well  that  I  should  close  with  this  single  thought 
of  fellowship.  Providence  has  been  working  very  won- 
derfully and  very  mightily,  with  all  these  great  causes 
which  have  had  great  sway  in  the  modern  world,  through 
this  gospel  of  free  thought.  I  call  it  a  gospel,— a  gospel 
of  humanity,  this  loving  gospel  to  bring  people  together. 
I  do  not  like  the  word  fellowship  as  an  active  verb.  I 
never  could  speak  of  felloivshipjnng  one.  Fellowship  is 
the  result  of  being  true  to  our  own  conviction  one  to 
another ;  coming  and  sitting  in  the  circle  that  takes  m 
the  heaven  as  well  as  the  earth,— and  I  will  finish  my 
little  talk  with  what  perhaps  is  as  yet  an  unedited  fact 
or  story,  of  one  of  those  other  elders,  not  so  very  old,  who 
have  gone  to  the  majority.  Samuel  Joseph  May  illus- 
trated this  bond  of  fellowship  ;  how  God  will  have  it,  that 


60 


we  must  be  brethren  and  fellows,  whether  we  will  or  not. 
He  told  me  that  one  day,  a  great  many  years  ago,  it  must 
now  be  between  thirty  or  forty  years,  he  was  returning 
from  an  anti-slavery  meeting,  on  a  steamer,  when  a  theo- 
logical conversation  arose  between  some  parties,  and  one 
man  was  pleased  to  denounce  Unitarians  very  severely  ; 
and  perhaps  some  of  you  remember  what  that  denuncia- 
tion was  of  the  Unitarian  Doctrine.  It  was  infidel,  it 
was  atheistic,  it  was  all  that  was  bad.  Mr.  May  listened 
quietly  until  the  man  got  through,  who  had  the  sym- 
pathy of  others,  and  then  frankly,  like  himself,  said,  "I 
must  tell  you,  sir,  that  I  am  myself  one  of  those  dreadful 
Unitarians."  "  Indeed,  indeed,"  said  the  man.  "  I  have 
listened  to  you  with  great  pleasure  at  the  anti-slavery 
meeting ;  would  you  allow  me  to  have  a  little  conversa- 
tion with  you  at  the  other  end  of  the  boat,  privately?" 
"  With  the  utmost  pleasure,"  said  Mr.  May.  They  took 
their  departure  from  the  little  circle  to  the  bow  of  the 
boat.  As  the  man  was  about  to  open  his  converting 
speech,  Mr.  May  said  :  "  Now  before  we  proceed  to  our 
little  controversy,  I  wish  to  ask  you  one  question.  Do 
you  believe  it  is  possible  in  this  matter  of  theology,  I 
after  all  may  be  right  and  you  may  be  wrong?"  "No, 
I  don't  believe  it  is  possible,"  said  the  man.  "Then, 
then,"  said  Mr.  May, "  I  think  there  is  no  advantage  in 
our  having  any  further  conversation."  Mr.  May  had 
his  place  nevertheless  in  that  man's  heart:  for  we  do  not 
choose  our  fellows.  God  chooses  our  fellows  for  us.  A 
man  said  one  day  :  "  I  heard  that  transcendental  lecturer 
speak.  He  got  his  thought  into  my  mind,  and  the  worst 
of  it  is,  I  can't  get  it  out."  Be  true  to  your  conviction ; 
for  that  is  the  charm,  the  beauty,  the  holiness !  And 
then — I  must  say  it,  yes,  I  must  say  it  in  spite  of  Dr. 
Furness'  presence — not  your  thought  alone,  but  you  will 
get  into  the  heart  of  every  man  or  woman  who  has  the 


61 


Ionian 


slightest  kuowledge  of  you.    Aud  the  nmu  and  the  ^\ 
will  love  you,  and  the  time  will  come  when  they  will 
not  want  to  get  you  out  of  their  mind. 

Rev.  Dr.  Thompson,  of  Jamaica  Plain,  Mass.,  then 
addressed  the  meeting  as  follows : 

My  Friends  :  I  feel  a  good  deal  of  embarrassment  in 
taking  my  place  on  the  platform,  having  received  no 
hint  that  any  word  would  be  expected  of  me. 

If  I  were  as  old  and  gray  as  some  of  the  brethren  who 
have  preceded  me,  I  might  perhaps  follow  in  their 
severely  sober  strain,  but  you  will  have  to  take  me  as  I 
am.  Before  touching  on  what  more  immediately  con- 
cerns the  occasion,  let  me  frankly  confess  to  having 
brought  with  me  a  slight  pique  against  the  venerated 
pastor  of  this  church,  and  you  shall  know  how  it  hap- 
pened. About  ten  years  ago — it  will  be  ten  in  April— the 
Sunday  after  the  first  National  Conference  in  New  York, 
I  was  seated  in  this  church.  Three  or  four  of  us  ministers 
had  come  on  to  attend  the  worship  ;  by  what  attraction 
you  can  well  imagine.  Robert  Collyer  preached  the 
sermon,  one  of  the  best  he  ever  preached,  that  on  "Hurting 
and  Healing  Shadows."  Now  you  all  know  Dr.  Furne<s' 
great  fondness  for  conferences  and  such  like,  only  he 
never  goes  to  them  !  Well,  I  think  he  must  have  been 
a  little  uneasy  while  Collyer  was  preaching  from  having 
heard  of  the  great  enthusiasm  which  prevailed  in  the 
recent  conference,  and  from  regretting,  though  lie  did 
not  say  so,  that  circumstances,  or  something,  had  ])re- 
vented  his  being  there  to  share  it.  While  he  sat  in  the 
pulpit  under  this  "hurting  shadow  "  he  was  thinking  very 
likely— but  I  do  not  assert  it  as  a  fact— how  he  could 
extemporize  something  here  that  would  bear  a  resemblance 
to  what  we  had  been  doing  and  enjoying  in  New  York  ; 
and  he  hit  on  a  plan.     So,  immediately  after  Brother 


62 


Collyer  had  finished,  our  excellent  friend  arose,  looking 
exactly  as  he  does  to-night,  and,  with  that  peculiar 
twinkle  under  his  spectacles  and  expression  about  the 
mouth  which  none  of  you  will  ever  forget,  said,  that  it 
had  occurred  to  him  that,  as  a  number  of  ministers  were 
present  who  had  attended  the  New  York  conference,  it 
might  be  interesting  to  the  congregation  to  hear  an  ac- 
count of  it  from  their  lips  ;  and  without  further  ceremony 
he  would  call  upon  them.  When  it  came  my  turn  he 
introduced  me  in  this  fashion  ;  (and  here  comes  in  the 
pique  of  which  I  am  going  to  free  my  mind).  "  This 
gentleman,"  said  he  (giving  my  name),  "some  of  the 
older  members  of  the  society  may  perhaps  remember  to 
have  heard  preach  here,  I  will  not  undertake  to  say 
precisely  when,  but  it  was  some  time  within  the  present 
century !"  Do  you  wonder  that  I  have"  had  a  feeling 
about  this  insinuation  ?  It  was  true  that  I  had  preached 
for  him  while  yet  a  young  man,  and  he  about  as  old  to 
my  appreciation  as  he  is  now.  It  is  also  true  that  in  the 
abundance  of  his  kindness  he  wanted  to  say  a  pleasant 
thing  about  the  sermon  ;  and  he  did  say  it.  And  what 
do  you  think  it  was  ?  I  hope  it  is  not  too  flattering  for 
me  to  repeat  after  having  carried  it  so  long  in  my  memory. 
He  said  :  "  Thompson,  there  was  one  capital  word  in  your 
sermon,  a  capital  word."  "  What  was  it  ?"  I  asked, 
surprised.  "It  was  the  word  intenerated;  where  did 
you  get  it?"  "  From  the  dictionary,"  I  meekly  replied  ; 
"  and  you  will  find  it  there."  And  now  I  wish  to  say 
that  if  at  any  time  within  the  last  forty  years  you  have 
heard  that  word  "  intenerated "  from  the  lips  of  your 
minister  you  may  know  where  it  came  from. 

Dr.  Furness :  I  have  never  used  it  once.     (Laughter.) 
What  delightful  reminiscences  of  my  connection  with 
this  church ! 

And  now  let  me  come  to  the  matter  of  the  jubilee. 


m 


It  happened  to  me  less  than  a  week  ago  to  walk  into  the 
sanctum  of  our  Brother  Mumford,  the  accomplished 
editor  of  the  Christian  Eegister.  I  entered  expecting  to 
see  my  welcome  in  the  generous  smile  with  which  he 
usually  meets  his  friends.  But  instead  of  this,  his  face 
wore  a  most  solemn  expression,  and  he  seemed  to  find  it 
hard  even  to  look  at  me.  "  What  now  ?"  thought  I ; 
"what  have  I  been  doing?"  After  a  minute  or  two  of 
suspense,  I  was  relieved  by  his  lifting  his  eyes  pleas- 
antly and  saying :  "  I  am  doing  up  Dr.  Furness,"  or 
words  to  that  effect.  I  instantly  remonstrated,  say- 
ing it  would  spoil  every  man's  speech  who  goes  to 
Philadelphia,  for  they  are  all  doing  just  w^hat  you  are. 
They  are  all  searching  the  volumes  of  the  Christian 
Register  and  Christian  Examiner,  and  other  newspapers 
and  periodicals  to  find  out  all  they  can  in  relation  to  the 
man  and  the  ordination  fifty  years  ago.  But  he  was  in- 
flexible, saying  that  "  he  didn't  mean  that  the  Christian 
Register  should  be  behind  any  of  them."  So  he  went  on, 
and  the  result  was  the  excellent  notice  of  our  friend  which 
appeared  last  Saturday. 

However,  he  did  not  give  quite  all  the  facts  that  link 
themselves  in  my  mind  with  the  ordination  of  Dr.  Fur- 
ness. It  was  a  very  remarkable  year  of  ordinations  in 
our  Unitarian  body,  remarkable  as  to  the  number  of 
them,  and  as  to  the  character  and  future  eminence  of  the 
men  ordained,  and  the  reputation  of  the  ministers  who 
ordained  them.  Let  me  refer  to  a  few  of  them.  Six 
months  before  the  ordination  here,  June  30th,  1824,  our 
beloved  Brother  Gannett  had  been  ordained  as  the  col- 
league of  Dr.  Channing  ;  and,  on  the  same  day,  his  lifelong 
friend  in  the  closest  intimacy,  the  Rev.  Calvin  Lincoln, 
was  ordained  at  Fitchburg.  Then  came  this  ordination  ; 
and  in  just  a  week  after,  January  19th,  followcnl  that  of 
the  Rev.  Alexander  Young,  over  the  New  South  Church 


64 


in  Boston,  Such  highly  distinguished  ministers  as  Pier- 
pont,  Palfrey,  Ware  Sr.,  Chanuing,  Upham,  and  Harris, 
took  the  several  parts.  Of  these,  two  only  survive,  Dr. 
Palfrey,  whom  several  of  us  here  remember  as  our  teacher 
in  the  Theological  School,  and,  rememberiug,  have  be- 
fore us  the  image  of  a  man  as  remarkable  for  method, 
industry,  learniug,  and  accuracy  as  a  teacher,  as  he  was 
for  a  conscientious  fidelity  in  the  discharge  of  every  duty, 
the  least  as  well  as  the  greatest ;  and  Charles  W.  Upham, 
who  had  been  ordained  but  a  mouth  before,  over  the  First 
Church  in  Salem.  Mr.  Upham,  after  twenty  years  in  the 
ministry,  retired  and  became  for  a  time  a  servant  of  the 
country  in  the  National  House  of  Kepresentatives.  In 
his  advanced  age  he  has  pursued  his  favorite  historical 
studies,  and  has,  as  you  know,  recently  published  a  Life 
of  Timothy  Pickering  in  four  volumes,  which  has  been 
received  with  great  favor  by  the  public. 

The  week  following  the  ordination  of  Dr.  Young,  came 
that  of  the  Rev.  Edmund  Q.  Sewall,  at  Amherst,  New 
Hampshire,  a  man  of  rare  abilities  and  virtues ;  no  longer 
living.  At  this  ordination  we  find  our  friend  Palfrey 
taking  part  with  Pierpout,  Lowell,  and  Thayer  of 
Lancaster.  This  was  followed  the  next  week,  February 
2d,  by  the  ordination  of  Rev.  John  Flagg,  of  West 
Roxbury,  in  the  exercises  of  which  we  find  the  names  of 
Palfrey  again,  the  lately  deceased  Dr.  Walker,  and  Drs. 
Pierce,  Lowell,  Gray,  and  Lamson,  all  well  known  by 
those  of  us  who  are  far  advanced  in  the  journey  of  life, 
and  all,  but  the  first,  now  gone  on  out  of  sight  but  not 
beyond  the  reach  of  our  affections.  The  week  following 
Mr.  Flagg's,  came  the  ordination  of  that  true  man  and 
faithful  servant  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Rev. 
Samuel  Barrett  over  the  Chambers  Street  Church  in 
Boston;  a  man  of  clear,  strong  mind,  devoted  to  his 
work,  exercising  his  ministry  in  great  patience,  in  great 


65 

cheerfulDess,  with  great  joy  in  God  and  great  love  for  the 
brotherhood.  Then  followed  in  the  very  next  week, 
February  16th,  the  installation  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Cole- 
man in  the  Barton  Square  Church,  of  Salem,  at  which, 
among  others,  Messrs.  Frothingham,  Pierpont,  and  Brazcr 
officiated.  I  ought  to  mention  that  at  the  beginning  of 
the  same  year,  1825,  if  not  a  little  earlier,  our  eminent 
brother,  the  Rev.  E.  B.  Hall,  a  particular  friend  of  Dr. 
Furness,  received  a  call  to  the  then  new  parish  in  North- 
hampton, which  the  state  of  his  health  did  not  permit 
him  at  once  to  accept.  But  the  parish  would  not  give 
him  up;  and  in  the  August  ensuing,  his  health  being 
partially  restored,  he  became  their  minister;  the  venerable 
Dr.  Ware  preaching  the  sermon,  and  Pierpont,  Willard, 
Lincoln,  and  Brazer,  assisting  in  other  exercises. 

Said  I  not  truly  that  the  year  which  gave  Dr.  Fur- 
ness to  Philadelphia,  was  memorable  for  its  ordinations 
in  our  denomination  ?  Certainly  no  other  has  been  so 
fruitful.  And  all  these  eminent  brothers  ordained,  with 
two  or  three  exceptions,  were  the  coevals  and  intimate 
personal  friends  of  him  whom  we  have  come  here  to- 
night to  honor  wath  the  outpourings  of  our  respect, 
gratitude,  and  affection. 

Now  there  is  one  other  event  relating  to  our  good 
friend,  which  I  hope  it  will  not  seem  improj^er  for  me  to 
refer  to,  having  been  for  twenty-seven  years  of  my  life  a 
minister  in  the  city  where  it  occurred  ;  a  very  important 
event  in  the  history  of  his  singularly  happy  life.  It 
occurred  in  the  year  following  his  ordination ;  and  it  has 
probably  had  quite  as  much  to  do  with  his  comfort  and 
happiness  here  as  your  unfailing  kindness  and  sympathy. 
The  event  was  of  so  much  importance  that  it  was  chron- 
icled in  the  Salem  Gazette  in  this  wise : 

"In  Salem,  August  29th,  1825,  by  Rev.  Mr.  Emerson, 
Rev.    William   Henry  Furness,    IMiiladelphia,   to    Miss 

9 


66 

Annis  Pulling  Jenks,  daughter  of  the  late  Mr.  John 
Jeuks." 

I  don't  dare  to  tell  all  I  have  heard  about  the  bride, 
though  I  think  from  what  you  now  see,  you  would  find 
no  difficulty  in  believing  it.  I  refer  to  the  event  because 
of  its  influence  and  its  Jong-continued  charm  ;  and  I  hope 
the  few  lines  from  Kogers'  "  Human  Life,"  with  which  I 
close,  if  I  can  join  them  to  what  I  have  been  saying,  will 
not  inappropriately  relieve  your  attention. 

•'  Across  the  threshold  led, 
And  every  tear  kissed  off  as  soon  as  shed, 
His  house  she  enters  there  to  he  a  light 
Shining  within  when  all  without  is  night; 
A  guardian  angel  o'er  his  life  presiding, 
Doubling  his  pleasures  and  his  cares  dividing ; 
Winning  him  back  when  mingling  with  the  throng, 
Back  from  a  world  we  love,  alas,  too  long. 
To  fireside  happiness,  to  hours  of  ease, 
Blest  with  that  charm— the  certainty  to  please." 

I  am  requested  to  introduce  our  Brother  Chadwick,  of 
Brooklyn. 

Rev.  John  W.  Chadwick,  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  spoke 
as  follows : 

Dear  Friends:  It  seems  to  be  the  order  of  the 
evening  for  each  speaker  to  justify  in  some  way  his 
presence  on  this  sacred  and  beautiful  occasion,  and  I, 
knowing  that  my  turn  was  coming,  have  been  not  a  little 
troubled  as  to  what  I  should  say  for  myself.  But  Dr. 
Thompson  has  helped  me  out.  In  the  accounts  of 
various  ordinations  which  he  has  read  to  you,  you 
must  have  noticed  how  few  old  men  had  anything  to  do 
with  them,  from  which  it  would  appear  that,  whether 
there  is  or  is  not  less  respect  for  age  now  than  formerly, 
there  was  formerly  much  more  respect  for  young  men 
than  at  present.     Nowadays  we  never  take  up  with  any 


67 


young  men  at  ordinations  and  such  times,  till  there  are 
no  more  old  men  to  be  had.  I  suspect,  therefore,  that  I 
have  been  invited  to  speak  here  this  evening  as  a  sign 
that  respect  for  young  men  has  not  entirely  died  out. 

Dear  friends,  I  saw  this  occasion  while  it  was  yet  a 
great  way  off.  When  Robert  Collyer  said  to  me  up  at 
Saratoga  last  September,  "John,  we  must  all  go  to 
Philadelphia  next  January,"  I  answered,  "  I  have  been 
meaning  to  this  three  years."  After  your  invitation 
came,  thinking  it  might  possibly  mean  that  I  should  say 
something,  I  began  to  think  what  I  would  say,  and  all  at 
once  I  found  my  thought  was  going  to  a  sort  of  tune.  I 
couldn't  account  for  it  except  by  the  fancy  that  my 
thought  was  sympathizing  with  the  music  of  Dr.  Furness' 
life,  which  has  been  a  sort  of  symphony — a  "  Pastoral 
Symphony  " — for  has  not  the  thought  of  the  Good  Shep- 
herd been  the  central  thought  and  inspiration  of  it  all 
from  the  beginning  until  now  ? 

Here  is  what  came  to  me. 


W.  H.  F. 

January  I2th,  1825.     January  12th,  1875. 

Standing  upon  the  summit  of  thy  years, 
Dear  elder  brother,  what  dost  thou  behold, 

Along  the  way  thy  tireless  feet  have  come 

From  that  far  day,  when  young  and  fresh  and  bold, 

Hearing  a  voice  that  called  thee  from  on  hif!;h, 

Thou  answeredst,  quickly,  ''  Father,  here  am  I." 

Fain  would  we  see  all  that  thine  eyes  behold, 
And  yet  not  all,  for  there  is  secret  store 

Of  joy  and  sorrow  in  each  private  heart, 
To  which  no  stranger  openeth  the  door. 

But  thou  canst  speak  of  many  things  beside, 

While  we  a  little  space  with  thee  abide. 


68 


Tell  us  of  those  who  fifty  years  ago 

Started  thee  forth  upon  thy  sacred  quest, 

Who  all  have  gone  before  thee,  each  alone. 
To  seek  and  find  the  Islands  of  the  Blest. 

To-day,  methinks  that  there  as  well  as  here 

Is  kept  all  tenderly  thy  golden  year. 

Tell  us,  for  thou  didst  know  and  love  him  well. 
Of  Channing's  face,— of  those  dilating  eyes 

That  seemed  to  catch,  while  he  was  with  us  here. 
Glimpses  of  things  beyond  the  upper  skies. 

Tell  us  of  that  weak  voice,  which  was  so  strong 

To  cleave  asunder  every  form  of  wrong. 

Thou  hast  had  good  companions  on  thy  way ; 

Gannett  was  with  thee  in  his  ardent  prime. 
And  with  thee  still  when  outward  feebleness 

But  made  his  spirit  seem  the  more  sublime. 
Till,  like  another  prophet,  summoned  higher, 
He  found,  like  him,  a  chariot  of  fire. 

And  that  beloved  disciple  was  thy  friend, 

Whose  heart  was  blither  than  the  name  he  bore. 

Who  yet  could  hide  the  tenderness  of  May, 
And  bleaker  than  December,  downward  pour 

The  tempest  of  his  wrath  on  slavery's  lie. 

And  all  that  takes  from  man's  humanity. 

And  thou  hast  walked  with  our  Saint  Theodore, 
Our  warrior-saint,  well-named  the  gift  of  God, 

Whose  manful  hate  of  every  hateful  thing, 
Blossomed  with  pity,  e'en  as  Aaron's  rod, 

And  lips  that  cursed  the  priest  and  Pharisee 

Gathered  more  honey  than  the  wilding  bee. 

All  these  are  gone,  and  Sumner's  heart  beneath 
Should  make  more  pure  the  yet  untainted  snow  ; 

Our  one  great  statesman  of  these  latter  days, 
Happy  wert  thou  his  other  side  to  know. 

To  call  him  friend,  whom  ages  yet  unborn 

Shall  love  tenfold  for  every  breath  of  scorn. 


69 


All  these  are  gone,  but  one  is  with  us  still, 
So  frail  that  half  we  deem  she  will  not  die, 

But  slow  exhale  her  earthly  part  away. 

And  wear  e'en  here  the  vesture  of  the  sky. 

Lucretia,  blessed  among  women  she. 

Dear  friend  of  Truth,  and  Peace,  and  Liberty. 

And  one,  whose  form  is  as  the  Son  of  man. 

Has  been  with  thee  through  all  these  busy  years, 

Holden  our  eyes,  and  He  to  us  has  seemed 
As  one  seen  dimly  through  a  mist  of  tears ; 

But  thou  hast  seen  him  clearly  face  to  face, 

And  told  us  of  his  sweetness  and  his  grace. 

Standing  upon  the  summit  of  thy  years, 
Dear  elder  brother,  thou  canst  see  the  day 

When  slavery's  curse  had  sway  in  all  the  land, 
And  thou  art  here,  and  that  has  passed  away. 

We  give  thee  joy  that  in  its  hour  of  pride. 

Thy  voice  and  hand  were  on  the  weaker  side. 

But  from  thy  clear  and  lofty  eminence 

Let  not  thine  eyes  be  ever  backward  turned, 

For  thou  canst  see  before  as  cannot  we 

Who  have  not  yet  thy  point  of  'vantage  earned. 

Tell  us  of  what  thou  seest  in  the  years 

That  look  so  strange,  seen  through  our  hopes  and  fears 

Nothing  we  know  to  shake  thy  steadfast  mind  ; 

Nothing  to  quench  thy  heart  with  doubt  or  fear  ; 
But  higher  truth  and  holier  love  revealed, 

And  justice  growing  to  man's  heart  more  dear. 
And  everywhere  beneath  high  heaven's  cope, 
A  deeper  trust,  a  larger,  better  hope. 

There  are  some  here  that  shall  not  taste  of  death 
Till  they  have  seen  the  kingdom  come,  with  power. 

O  brave  forerunner,  wheresoe'er  thou  art, 
Thou  wilt  be  glad  with  us  in  that  glad  hour. 

Farewell !     Until  we  somewhere  liieet  again. 

We  know  in  whom  we  have  believed.     Amen. 


70 


Rev.  Mr.  Chadwick,  in    turn,   introduced   the   Rev. 
R.  R.  Shippen,  of  Boston,  Mass.,  who  said : 

My  dear  Friends  :  Amid  these  memorials  of  your 
Christmas  rejoicing,  and  these  fresh  flowers  and  ever- 
greens of  tropical  luxuriance  with  which  you  would 
symbolize  the  fragrance  of  the  memories  that  cluster 
round  this  aniversary,  and  your  desire  to  keep  them 
green,  it  is  my  pleasant  privilege  to  speak  for  the 
Unitarian  Association  a  word  of  greeting,  giving  you 
congratulations  on  this  your  golden  wedding,  with  best 
wishes  for  the  coming  years.  Yet  as  I  speak  for  the 
Association,  I  remember  that  some  of  our  noblest  and 
best,  from  Channing  through  the  list,  have  been  some- 
what fearful  of  ecclesiastical  entanglements,  and  of 
hard,  dry  machinery,  and  have  deemed  the  truest  and 
best  work  in  life  that  wrought  by  character  and  personal 
influence ;  even  as  Jesus  himself  did  his  work,  not  by 
organizations,  but  by  his  own  personality.  Permit  me 
then  to  touch  two  or  three  lines  of  personal  influence 
flowing  forth  from  this  pulpit,  that  are  but  representatives 
of  many  more.  Let  me  speak  for  one  in  your  city,  now 
in  her  ninety-third  year,  kept  from  this  meeting  only  by 
the  feebleness  of  old  age,  who  this  afternoon  told  me  of 
her  fresh  remembrance  of  the  occasion  of  fifty  years  ago, 
vivid  as  if  but  yesterday,  who  has  been  a  lifelong  friend 
of  our  cause,  a  generous  worker  in  this  church  and  bene- 
factor of  the  Meadville  Church  and  Theological  School, 
who  recognizes  this  pulpit  as  the  source  of  some  of  the 
choicest  inspirations  of  her  life.  Shall  I  speak  for  one 
who  in  a  large  home-circle  of  many  brothers  has  been  a 
loving,  sisterly  influence  of  sweetness  and  light?  who  in 
her  youth  was  here  a  worshiper,  and  caught  the  inspira- 
tion of  this  place,  and  in  her  greeting  sent  me  to-day 
writes  that  she  is  with  us  here  in  spirit  to-night ;  that  no 
one  present  can  join  in  these  services  with  a  more  deep 


71 

and  tender  gratitude,  and  no  human  thought  can  fully 
know  what  her  life  owes  to  the  ministry  we  now  com- 
memorate ?  Shall  I  speak  for  another,  a  younirer 
brother,  the  brightest  of  the  seven,  whose  youth  and 
early  manhood  were  spent  in  this  city  in  study  and 
practice  of  law?  who  Sunday  by  Sunday  learned  here 
that  blessed  faith  that,  when  in  the  full  promise  of  his 
manly  prime  his  last  hour  came,  enabled  him  to  go 
bravely  to  death  full  of  a  cheerful  hope  of  immortality  ? 
As  to-night  he  makes  heaven  more  real  and  more  attrac- 
tive to  my  thought,  in  his  name  I  pay  the  tribute  of 
thanks  for  the  inspirations  of  this  pulpit.  Shall  I  speak 
for  myself?  In  my  early  home  I  remember  your  pastor's 
familiar  volume  of  "Family  Prayer"  as  a  household 
word.  At  the  outset  of  my  ministry,  at  the  Portland 
Convention,  just  twenty-five  years  ago,  I  first  heard  the 
genial,  charming,  gracious  word  of  your  minister  in  his 
prime.  And  as  in  Boston  one  may,  day  by  day,  correct 
his  own  timepiece  by  Cambridge  observations  of  the  sky, 
whose  electric  communications  give  us  every  passing  hour 
the  celestial  time  true  to  the  second,  so  in  my  young 
ministry  at  Chicago, — a  lonelier  frontier  post  then  than 
now, — when  the  barbarous  Fugitive  Slave  Law  passed 
through  Congress,  and  the  Northwest  Territories  were 
opened  for  slavery,  and  the  dark  days  came  upon  the 
nation,  if,  as  I  tried,  I  bore  any  worthy  testimony  for 
freedom,  I  rejoice  that  I  was  aided  in  setting  my  con- 
science true  to  the  celestial  time  by  this  observatory  in 
Philadelphia.  The  blessed  influences  of  your  pulpit  have 
run  their  lines  through  our  land  and  through  the  world. 
And,  friends,  what  does  our  Association  seek  but  to 
extend  and  multiply  these  lines  of  personal  influence,  to 
enable  Boston  and  Philadelphia  to  join  hands  in  the 
same  noble  work?  When  I  asked  your  pastor  for  the 
last  book  of  Whittier,  that  1   might  quote  a  forgotten 


72 

line,  he  replied,  "  All  good  books  have  feet  and  wings 
and  will  find  their  way  at  last."  But  our  Association 
only  desires  to  quicken  their  speed,  and  by  the  people's 
generosity  to  enlarge  their  wings ;  that  as  we  are  now 
sending  Channing  through  the  land,  we  should  gladly 
send  the  noble  words  of  Dewey  and  Furness  flying  on 
the  wings  of  the  wind. 

And  what  do  our  Association  and  Conferences  stand 
for  but  for  fellowship  ?  for  the  good-will  and  helpfulness 
of  brotherly  greetings  ?  Pennsylvanian  as  I  am  by  birth 
and  ancestry,  with  you  I  rejoice  that  these  Boston 
brethren  have  been  brought  to  Philadelphia.  It  will  do 
us  all  good  to  know  more  of  each  other.  This  meeting 
to-night  is  just  like  our  Conferences,  where  our  hearts 
are  warmed  by  words  of  brotherly  kindness.  As  I  recall 
your  minister's  inspiring  word  at  the  Portland  Conven- 
tion, it  has  been  one  of  the  regrets  of  my  life  that  we  have 
not  heard  him  oftener  among  us.  But  it  is  never  too  late 
to  mend.  On  behalf  of  the  Association  and  the  Confer- 
ence I  invite  our  Brother  Furness  and  all  of  you  to  at- 
tend our  meetings  henceforth  every  time. 

And  now,  my  friends,  when  Brother  Mumford  wrote 
that  editorial  last  week,  I  said,  "  You  are  a  generous 
fellow;  why  didn't  you  keep  that  to  make  a  speech 
from?"  I  am  sure  I  don't  know  what  he  is  going  to  say. 
I  am  requested  to  ask  him  to  speak. 

Rev.  Thomas  J.  Mumford.  Dear  Friends :  On  account 
of  the  lateness  of  the  hour  I  will  only  say  that  that  luas 
my  speech.  The  next  speaker  will  be  Brother  White, 
and  when  I  say  Brother  White,  I  mean  brother  just  as 
much  as  they  did  in  the  days  of  Henry  Ware. 

Rev.  William  O.  White,  of  Keene,  N.  H.,  then  ad- 
dressed the  meeting  as  follows : 


73 


There  is  one  comfort,  dear  i'rieud.s,  a.s  I  thank  you  at 
this  late  hour,  for  giving  me  the  pleasure  of  hcing  with 
you,  and  that  is,  that  Philadelphia  time  is  a  little  more 
generous  than  the  time  which  I  carry  in  my  pocket;  but 
I  will  not  abuse  even  Philadelphia  time.  The  word  that 
Brother  Mumford  just  mentioned  brings  up  very  dear 
and  tender  associations  with  men  so  closely  united  in  my 
memory  with  our  friend  and  brother,  Dr.  Furness.  But 
I  will  not  carry  out  the  thought  that  comes  to  me.  I 
would  gladly  help  along  one  or  two  strains  that  vibrate 
in  our  hearts,  as  the  words  are  spoken,  that  "the  time 
will  come  when  we  shall  take  a  last  farewell  of  death," 
and  that  other  word  of  a  younger  speaker  who  almost 
felt,  and  almost  knew  that  one  of  the  long-departed 
friends  of  our  Brother  Furness  was  here. 

I  am  glad  to  feel  that  I  am  here,  just  as  some  of  my 
younger  friends  were,  because  I  am  the  son  of  a  friend 
of  Dr.  Furness,  a  layman  whose  tastes  led  him  to  the 
study  of  theology,  and  who,  I  think,  was  more  attached 
to  the  studies  of  the  ministry  than  many  of  us  ministers 
are.  I  say  this,  because  as  soon  as  I  saw  Dr.  Furness 
this  morning  I  was  greeted  as  my  father's  son. 

And  I  would  not  have  spoken  here  at  all  at  this  late 
hour,  but  to  try  to  fasten  to  those  one  or  two  sweet 
thoughts  that  have  been  uttered  to-niglit,  to  which  I 
have  alluded,  a  line  of  the  poet-sculptor  "Michael 
Angelo."  He  is  contemplating  the  wasting  block  of 
marble  upon  which  he  is  working ;  the  block  lessens ; 
lessens,  lessens,  continually  in  size ;  and  so  the  years  of 
our  friend's  sweet,  earnest  ministry  here,  are  fast  j^ass- 
ing  away  before  our  eyes.  But  the  great  lesson  that  I 
have  found,  as  I  go  back  to  tlie  time  when  I  remember 
to  have  heard  Dr.  Furness'  voice  in  my  father's  house, 
and  in  the  old  pulpit  in  Salem,  and  as  I  remember  the 
week  that  I  spent  with  him  more  than  a  score  of  years 

10 


74 


ago,  and  as  I  recall  the  tenderness  of  his  voice,  in  his 
supplications  and  his  preaching,  only  last  October,  the 
great  lesson  I  have  taken  with  me  about  him  fastens 
itself  to  the  line  which  I  am  now  to  quote  of  "  Michael 
Angelo."  As  the  poet  and  sculptor  contemplated  the 
wasting  marble,  he  said  : 
"  The  more  the  marble  wastes,  the  more  the  statue  grows." 

So,  with  our  friend,  the  years  are  passing  away  ;  pass- 
ing away,  soon  they  must  be  gone  ;  but  the  statue  grows 
with  tenderness  of  heart  deeper  than  ever ;  that  sweet 
voice,  rich  with  varied  experience  of  the  joys  and  sorrows 
of  those  friends  of  his  in  his  flock,  year  after  year,  has 
acquired  an  added  tenderness ;  and  we  feel 

"The  more  the  marble  wastes,  the  more  the  statue  grows," 

and  we  can  welcome  the  time  when  he,  or  any  of  us,  who 
try  to  live  in  a  like  spirit  of  devotion  to  the  Master,  shall 
"  take  an  everlasting  farewell  of  death." 

I  am  requested  to  call  on  our  friend  Brother  Putnam, 
of  Brooklyn,  New  York. 

Rev.  Dr.  A.  P.  Putnam  made  the  following  address : 

My  dear  Friends  :  I  think  it  must  have  been  for  a 
larger  number  of  years  than  Brother  Chadwick  said  for 
himself,  that  I  have  been  looking  forward  to  this  occasion, 
meaning  to  be  here  not  with  a  set  speech,  as  you  will  very 
soon  see,  but  because  I  wished  to  come  and  to  say  from 
ray  heart,  I  thank  you.  Dr.  Furness. 

I  remember  when  I  was  a  bookkeeper  in  Boston,  how 
my  elder  brother,  who  was  in  the  divinity  school  at  that 
time,  used  to  bring  me  the  volumes  of  Chauning,  Buck- 
minster,  and  Ware,  and  also  various  pamphlet  sermons  of 
Dr.  Furness.  I  recollect  well  the  delight  with  which  I  read 
Dr.  Furness'  pages,  and  the  gospel  of  liberty  they  taught 
me,  and  the  new  revelation  they  seemed  to  give  me  of 


75 

the  Christ.  I  have  been  a  disciple  following  far  off.  Yet 
I  know  I  have  not  lost  during  all  these  years  the  strong 
conviction  I  had  then.  It  has  deepened  and  deepened 
from  that  time  until  now.  I  have  gathered  his  pamphlets 
wherever  I  could  find  them,  and  with  not  a  little  zeal 
I  have  searched  for  all  his  books,  many  of  which  are  out 
of  print  and  are  not  easily  to  be  found,  until,  some  years 
ago,  I  completed  the  whole  list,  and  I  cherish  them  as 
among  the  most  precious  treasures  in  my  library.  The 
argument  which  he  draws  from  the  naturalness,  the 
simplicity  and  artlessness  of  the  gospel  records  for  their 
truth,  and  the  uplifting  of  the  curtain  so  that  tiie  Christ 
may  be  seen  in  his  higher  spiritual  beauty!  what  a 
debt  do  we  owe  him  for  that.  Does  he  know  ?  can  he 
know?  can  we  tell  him  how  much  the  members  of  our 
churches  feel  of  gratitude  and  love  to  him  for  all  that 
he  has  done  for  us  in  this  way  ?  Perhaps  in  some  far  off 
time  he  may  know  it  more  fully ;  but  it  is  right,  dear 
friends,  that  we  should  come  together  thus  and  say  these 
words  which  are  uttered  here  to-night,  and  before  he 
has  gone  away  tell  him  how  much  we  do  love  and 
honor  him,  and  why  it  is  we  do  love  and  honor  him,  and 
why  it  is  that  we  shall  always  revere  and  bless  him. 
When  I  have  thought  what  words  have  gone  forth  Ironi 
that  desk  in  behalf  of  liberty  and  right  in  this  land,  1 
have  wished  that  the  church  might  remain  just  as  it  is 
to-night,  and  that  pulpit  just  as  it  is  for  years  and 
generations  to  come.  It  speaks  a  lesson  for  all ;  those 
words  abide  with  us  still ;  they  have  come  home  to  our 
hearts,  and  kindled  in  our  souls  new  zeal  for  the  truth 
as  it  is  in  Jesus.  How  many  chains  they  have  broken, 
and  oh  !  what  a  welcome,  in  comparison  with  wiiich  these 
congratulations  of  the  hour  are  small  indeed,  is  reserved 
for  our  venerable  father  and  friend,  from  tiie  spirits  of 


76 


the  ransomed  freedmen  who  have  ascended  to  heaven, 
and  who  will  greet  him  there. 

Let  me  say  that  forty  years  ago  it  was,  that  Dr. 
Furness  preached  the  installation  sermon  of  the  first 
minister  of  the  church  which  I  represent  here  ;  the  first 
society  of  our  faith  in  Brooklyn.  It  seems  a  long,  long 
while  indeed.  I  have  been  over  ten  years  there  myself. 
Dr.  Farley  preceded  me,  and  he  was  there  twenty  years 
or  more.  Mr.  Holland  was  there  several  years  before 
him ;  Mr.  Barlow  several  years  before  Mr.  Holland.  Dr. 
Furness  preached  the  installation  sermon  of  Kev.  Mr. 
Barlow,  who  was  the  first  minister  of  our  faith  in 
Brooklyn,  forty  years  ago  the  17th  of  last  September. 
Of  the  ministers  who  took  part  in  the  services  of  that 
occasion,  all  except  your  pastor  and  my  immediate  pre- 
decessor, who  was  then  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  have  passed 
away, — William  Ware,  John  Pierpont,  Caleb  Stetson, 
E.  B.  Hall,  and  others.  Nearly  ten  years  later.  Dr. 
Furness  was  present  at  a  convention  held  there  at  the 
time  of  the  dedication  of  our  church,  and  preached  the 
closing  communion  sermon.  His  is  a  familiar  name  with 
my  people,  who  are  all  with  you  here  in  the  spirit,  and 
would  join  me,  I  know,  in  heartily  saying,  "God  bless 
him  and  you,  and  the  cause  of  humanity  and  righteous- 
ness, which  is  so  dear  to  you." 

I  am  requested  to  call  upon  Rev.  Mr.  Ames  to  address 
you. 

Rev.  C.  G.  Ames,  of  Germantown,  Pa.,  said : 
As  I  am  one  of  the  younger  brethren,  and  very  much 
at  home,  I  feel  that  I  should  deny  myself,  and  take  up 
my  cross,  and  introduce  a  brother  from  a  distance,  espe- 
cially as  you  have  met  to  hear  from  these  patriarchal 
ministers  who  can  offer  things  which  I  cannot.  But  I 
may  boast  one  advantage;  they  cannot  see  Dr.  Furness 


77 


every  day.  Nor  can  I  speak  freely  of  what  I  feci ;  it  is 
too  much  like  being  one  of  the  family.  I  live  too  near, 
and  can  easily  be  excused.  My  voice  is  very  frequently 
heard  in  this  house.  With  a  heart  brimmiug:  full,  I 
have  the  painful  pleasure,  therefore,  of  holding  it  down, 
knowing  it  will  keep. 

I  will  introduce  Rev.  Dr.  Bellows,  of  New  York. 
Rev.  Dr.  Bellows  made  the  following  remarks : 
I  am  sure  both  modesty  and  discretion  would  suggest 
the  wisdom  of  my  being  taught  by  my  junior  and  friend, 
and  in  releasing  you  from  any  further  attendance  on  this 
interesting  service.  As  for  myself,  I  feel  tired  as  a  child 
with  the  pleasures  of  the  evening ;  and  I  can  conceive  that 
you  all  must  be  so  tired  that  you  would  welcome  as  your  best 
friend  him  who  would  permit  you  to  go  home  and  think 
over  all  the  kind  things  you  have  heard  here.  And  yet 
I  think  it  is  a  kind  of  duty  to  say  a  word  in  behalf  of  my 
own  people  and  city,  and  all  that  great  community  which 
I  am  privileged  to  represent  here.  New  York  speaks 
to  Philadelphia  ;  and  to  a  good  many  of  us  in  New  York, 
Brother  Furness  is  more  than  half  of  Philadelphia. 
When  we  think  of  Philadelphia  we  think  rather  of  him 
than  of  anything  else,  and  it  is  not  for  anything  he  has  done 
either;  not  for  all  that  great  service  to  freedom,  not  for 
all  that  valuable  contribution  to  theological  speculation 
or  criticism,  but  for  being  what  he  cannot  possibly  help, 
and  that  is,  himself.  It  is  so  much  more  to  be  than  to 
say,  or  even  to  do,  that  I  have  not  always  a  great  deal 
of  praise  for  the  bright  tilings  he  does,  or  tlic  bright 
things  he  says, — only  because  lie  is  what  he  is  and  can't 
help  it,  and  deserves  very  little  thanks  for  it ;  for  God  is 
the  being  we  must  thank,  not  him.  It  is,  therefore,  that 
I  am  by  force  compelled  to  thank  God  for  him,  and  not 
thank  him. 


78 


Good  fellow!  he  has  had  it  all  himself.  God  gave 
him  all  his  precious  gifts ;  he  gave  him  his  broad  and 
generous  humanity ;  made  him  a  harp  for  all  the  winds 
of  heaven  and  earth  to  play  on,  not  a  fife,  to  be  stopped  ; 
gave  him  that  benignant  smile  which  he  doesn't  know 
anything  about  himself;  and  gave  him  that  delicious 
voice  which  is  in  itself  a  harmony  of  all  his  sweetest 
powers,  an  expression  of  the  depth  and  clearness  of  his 
spirit. 

Poor  fellow !  he  cannot  help  it ;  he  has  carried  it  with 
him  all  these  seventy-two  years.  And,  surely,  the  first 
time  I  ever  saw  him  his  voice  was  the  thing  that  spoke 
to  me.  I  didn't  care  what  it  said  ;  there  it  was,  and  I 
have  often  thought  if  a  soft  voice  be  an  excellent  thing 
in  woman,  such  a  voice  as  his  is,  is  one  of  the  most 
magnificent  and  significant  gifts  that  God  ever  gives  to 
man.  Well,  let  us  thank  God  for  him,  and  then  let  us 
thank  him  for  using  those  talents  so  well.  Now  let  me 
thank  you  in  behalf  of  the  denomination,  dear  brethren, 
for  not  being  able  to  be  otherwise  than  so  generous,  so 
kind  and  faithful  to  a  man  who,  for  all  I  know,  never 
used  one  particle  of  machinery  to  keep  you  together,  has 
taken  no  particular  pains  to  keep  you  together,  but  just 
stood  like  a  kind  of  magnet,  and  drawn  you  to  his 
heart.  We  don't  understand  it  all,  but  God  does ;  and 
we  see  how  with  a  witchery  he  has  done  more  than  most 
of  us  are  able  to  do  by  getting  every  sort  of  instru- 
mentality at  work  that  we  can  possibly  use  to  supple- 
ment the  defects  of  our  natural  constitution.  I  wish  I 
could  work  just  as  Dr.  Furness  does,  and  have  that  same 
influence  and  power,  without  seeking  any.  If  I  could 
stand  up  in  naked  simplicity  and  majesty,  and  then  win 
the  people  without  using  all  this  painful  labor,  this 
fatiguing  desperately  drudging  machinery,  I  should  be 
very  glad  indeed  ;  but  for  most  of  us  poor  fellows,  it  is  a 


70 


necessity  to  resort  to  these  matters,  to  sup})lomeiit  the 
defects  of  our  natural  constitution  and  faculties ;  but  I 
think  Brother  Furness  can  do  without  it.  One  thing 
further  I  will  say  of  Dr.  Furness.  It  is  a  subject  of 
special  congratulation  that  he  has  been  always  himself; 
that  no  theological  or  critical  studies  have  given  an 
ecclesiastical  tinge  or  twist  to  his  character,  or  prevented 
the  people  from  seeing  him  in  his  native  outline.  He 
has  been  a  preacher  and  minister,  but  still  more,  a  man, 
and  although  no  man  less  deserves,  in  the  depreciating 
sense,  the  name  of  a  man  of  the  world,  yet  in  a  noble 
sense  he  has  been  a  man  of  the  world  ;  for  he  has  made 
the  world  tributary  to  his  growth  ;  drawn  in  its  widest 
culture,  enjoyed  its  largest  freedom,  entered  into  its  every- 
day feelings  and  joys,  and  made  it  his  own  by  his  great 
enjoyment  of  it,  and  insight  into  its  meaning.  Neither 
ecclesiasticism  nor  dogmatism  has  been  able  to  quench 
his  native  originality,  and  that  is  one  of  his  chief  charms 
to-day. 

Dear  brethren,  let  me  congratulate  you  at  tlie  close  of 
this  half  century  of  your  minister's  labors,  u})()n  what  we 
now  behold  in  the  magnificent  development  of  the  theologi- 
cal ideas  and  religious  temper  for  which  our  branch  of  the 
church  has  meanwhile  stood.  We  expected  great  things, 
but  we  have  seen  larger  ones,  although  of  a  diHereut 
kind.  We  looked  for  a  multiplication  of  our  ehurches, 
which  we  have  not  seen,  but  how  vast  has  been  the  si)read 
of  our  ideas  and  principles?  We  expected  to  be  the 
chief  instruments  in  the  work  of  liberalizing  Christian 
thought  and  feeling,  but  Divine  providence  took  u})  tlie 
work  with  larger  methods  and  new  agencies,  and  made 
us  rather  sharers  than  leaders  in  theological  rclorm.  Wc 
happened  to  be  the  first  wave  of  what  turned  out  to  be 
an  incoming  tide,  whicli  has  swept  the  whoh-  chun-lj  on. 
I  think  Luther  did  not  see  in   his  day  a  greater,  a  more 


80 


important  reformation  in  theological  ideas  than  we  have 
realized  in  the  last  half  century. 

Whether  there  be  one  Unitarian  church  in  Phila- 
delphia or  more,  or  whether  our  churches  in  New  York 
and  Brooklyn,  Baltimore  and  Washington,  New  Eng- 
land and  the  West  have  multiplied  as  fast  as  we  hoped  or 
not,  there  is  more  liberal  Christianity  preached  in  this 
country  to-day,  than  the  boldest  prophets  could  have 
foreseen  when  our  enterprise  started.  It  has  advanced, 
and  it  has  triumphed,  by  whatever  way.  God  has  taken 
it  up,  and  brought  the  aid  of  a  broad  science,  a  broad 
philosophy,  a  broad  reformatory  influence  in  society, 
during  all  these  last  years,  to  bear  powerfully  upon  it. 
We  have  seen  results  which  may  cause  many  of  us  to 
say,  "  Mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation ;  let  now  thy 
servant  depart  in  peace."  I  feel  no  further  anxiety 
about  the  spread  of  liberal  Christianity.  It  now  spreads 
by  a  necessity.  It  is  a  glorious  privilege  to  work  in  it 
and  for  it.  But  the  business  is  essentially  done.  The 
leaven  is  at  work,  and  it  is  working  everywhere,  just  as 
much  in  the  orthodox  churches,  so-called,  as  in  our  own. 
And  very  little  free  thinking  is  done  in  our  denomination 
which  is  not  just  as  fully  represented  in  the  old  ortho- 
doxy. We  are  no  longer  the  sole  ofiicers  in  that  great 
army.  I  thank  God  that  the  business  of  fighting  is 
pretty  much  over,  and  that  we  are  now  beginning  to 
think  more  of  cultivating  religiously  the  area  which  has 
been  left  for  us  specially  to  take  care  of.  Let  us  now 
look  to  it,  as  churches  and  ministers  and  parishes,  and 
see  that  we  produce  workmen,  and,  finally,  spiritual 
fruit,  in  the  particular  area  over  which  we  are  set  as 
husbandmen  and  gardeners.  That  you  may  succeed 
in  cultivating  your  own  soil,  and  in  making  the  vine- 
yard a  nobler  and  grander  one,  and  in  bringing  forth 
more  clusters  of  grapes  of  the  particular  vine  from  which 


81 


you  are  set,  is  ray  earnest  prayer.  And  tluit  we  may  all 
return  from  these  services  bearing  your  blessin<rs  and 
Brother  Furness'  blessing  with  us  into  our  own  several 
fields  of  labor,  and  that  we  may  be  abler  and  nobler  and 
more  careful  shepherds,  and  more  faithful  husbandmen, 
is  the  best  thing  I  can  ask,  that  we  may  be  j^ermitted  to 
carry  away  from  this  hour  and  this  blessed  assembly  of 
Unitarian  Christians  and  friends. 

Musk. 

Duet  for  Two  Sopranos  and  Chorus,  .         .  Mkndelssohn. 

"I  waited  for  the  Lord,"  from  "  Hymn  of  Praise." 

Chorus, SponR. 

"  Happy  who  in  Thy  House  Eeside." 

Dr.  Furness  then  addressed  the  meeting. 

Dear  Friends  :  While  I  am  very  glad  to  meet  here 
my  brothers  in  the  ministry,  and  am  not  at  all  insensible 
to  their  kind  words,  I  call  you  all  to  witness  that  they 
are  not  here  by  my  invitation.  I  never  invited  them 
to  come  here  and  talk  about  me.  But  as  long  as  they 
have  done  so,  I  congratulate  you  all,  and  all  who  are  in- 
terested in  the  success  of  the  good  cause.  It  is,  you  see, 
in  the  hands  of  young  men.  Although  some  of  your 
guests  here  show  gray  on  their  heads,  they  are  very 
young  men  evidently,  fond,  especially  brother  Bellows, 
of  romancing.  I  use  the  words  that  Dr.  Bancroft  used 
at  my  ordination  :  "  It  was  a  comfort  to  him  to  feel  thai 
as  he  was  going  away  the  cause  would  be  left  in  hands 
that  would  carry  it  on  a  great  deal  better  than  he  could." 
Some  of  my  friends  told  me  I  had  bi'tter  not  come  here 
to-night;  but  brother  Bellows  intimated  to  uw  that  by 
staying  away  I  might  seem  to  be  bidding  for  praise.  So 
I  thought  I  would  come  and  see  whether  some  restraint 

11 


82 


could  not  be  put  upon  the  speakers  by  my  presence.    But 
I  don't  think  I  have  availed  much. 

The  day  that  I  was  ordained — but  I  am  not  going  to 
tire  you  with  old  time  stories, — when  an  old  minister 
begins  telling  his  experiences  we  never  know  when  he 
will  stop — we  were  all  invited, — the  gentlemen  of  the 
clergy,  and  the  delegates  from  Boston  and  New  York, — 
to  dine  at  Mr.  Thomas  Astley's,  who  lived  at  the  corner 
of  Ninth  and  Walnut  Streets,  a  wealthy  Englishman  of 
our  persuasion.  While  we  w^ere  sitting  w^aiting  for  dinner, 
the  report  came  that  the  kitchen  chimney  was  on  fire ! 
One  of  the  gentlemen  suggested  that  the  fire  could  be 
put  out  very  readily  by  putting  a  blanket  before  the 
chimney,  and  throwing  some  sulphur  into  the  fire-place. 
After  dinner,  when  the  w^ine  was  passed  around  and  the 
toasts  were  given,  one  of  the  gentlemen  proposed  "  the 
Furnace  that  had  been  kindled  in  Philadelphia."  And 
another  added,  "  May  it  never  be  put  out  with  brim- 
stone." 

The  meeting  was  closed  by  a  benediction  pronounced 
by  Dr.  Furness. 


LETTERS. 


THE  FOLLOWING  LETTERS  WERE   RECEIVED   BY 

THE  COMMITTEE  FROM  PERSONS  WHO 

WERE  UNABLE  TO  BE  PRESENT. 


SiiEFFiFXD,  January  4th,  1875. 

To  THE  Committee  of  the  First  Congregational  Society 
OF  Unitarians. 

Gentlemen  :  I  am  obliged  and  gratified  by  the  invitation. 
I  wish  that  I  could  comply  with  it.  It  would  have  been  a 
great  pleasure  to  me,  to  join  the  friends  of  your  honored  pastor, 
in  commemorating  a  ministry,  not  only  so  long,  but  otherwise 
equally  remarkable.  I  should  like  to  be  in  your  church  on 
that  interesting  evening  of  the  12th,  to  hear  the  pleasant  things 
that  will  be  said,  and  to  say  some,  perhaps,  myself. 

But  I  cannot,  that  is,  I  cannot  take  so  long  a  winter  journey. 
I  am  not  sure  enough  of  my  health  and  strength  to  venture 
upon  it.  Will  you  give  my  love  to  Dr.  Furness  and  his  family, 
and  accept  for  yourselves  and  the  society,  the  congratulations 

with  which  I  am. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Orville  Deavey. 


IIazklwood,  Cambriixji;,  January  r,th,  187.5. 

Gentlemen:  I  feel  very  much  honored  and  gratified  by 
your  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  commemoration  of  Dr. 
Furness'  settlement  in  the  ministry  in  Philadelphia,  but  the 
state  of  mv  health  forbids  me  to  accept  the  invitation.  My 
interest  in  your  society  dates  from  a  still  earlier  period. 

I  have  listened  in  your  old  Octagon  Church  to  the  prcaciiing 
of  Mr.  Taylor,  and  I  believe  of  Mr.  Yaughan,  as  well  as 
preached  there  repeatedly  my.self.  For  more  than  fifty  year.. 
I  have  been  your  pastor's  admirer  and  warm  friend. 

I  heartily  wish  him  future  happy  years  of  earthly  life,  and  1 
pray  God  that  after  his  retirement  from  your  service  another 
pastor  may  serve  you  with  an  ability  and  zeal  not  too  inferior 

to  his. 

1  am,  gt'iith-mt-n, 

Very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  ,-crvant, 

John  G.  Palfrey. 


Cambkidge,  January  1st,  1875. 
Gentlemen  :  I  regret  very  sincerely  that  college  duties 
render  it  impossible  for  me  to  accept  your  invitation.  Kegard- 
ing  your  pastor  with  equal  reverence  and  affection,  I  should 
deem  it  a  great  privilege  to  be  present  at  the  commemorative 
services,  from  which  imperative  necessity  alone  would  detain 
me. 

I  am,  gentlemen, 

Very  truly  yours, 

A.  P.  Peabody. 


HiNGHAM,  January  -Ith,  1S75. 
Gentlemen  :  I  thank  my  dear  friend,  Dr.  Furness,  and  the 
committee  for  thinking  of  me  at  this  time.  I  should  be  so  very 
happy  to  be  with  you,  and  join  in  all  the  expressions  of  respect 
and  love  for  one  whose  long  and  faithful  ministry  has  earned 
the  esteem  and  confidence  of  all  who  know  him.  Beside  this, 
Dr.  Furness  and  I  alone  continue  in  the  ministry,  of  those  who 
were  classmates  in  the  Divinity  School  and,  I  think,  in  College. 
Give  my  love  to  your  pastor.  I  need  not  wish  him  a  happy 
old  age.  That  blessing  is  assured  to  him  by  his  fidelity  to  his 
convictions  of  truth  and  duty  through  life. 

Very  respectfully, 

Calvin  Lincoln. 

Cambridge,  January  5th,  1875. 

Gentlemen  :  I  received  your  invitation  to  be  present  at  the 
observance  of  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  settlement  of  your 
pastor,  Dr.  Furness.  It  would  give  me  great  pleasure  to  attend. 
But  I  do  not  feel  at  liberty  to  be  absent  from  my  regular  duty 
so  long  as  would  be  required. 

No  occasion  of  the  kind  so  significant  has  occurred  for  many 
years.  For  fifty  j^ears  Dr.  Furness  has  stood  at  his  post,  and 
manfully  defended  the  cause  of  what  he  deemed  Divine  Truth 
and  Divine  Eight.  He  has  never  failed  to  hold  up  the  highest 
standard  of  private  and  public  duty.  He  has  made  no  abate- 
ment from  the  truth  in  his  utterance  of  it,  nor  deformed  it  by 
an  immoral  spirit.  For  fifty  years  he  has  been  an  untiring 
student  of  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  four  gospels,  seeking 


87 


to  bring  to  light  tlie  reality  of  that  life,  tho  internal  evidence 
of  the  truthfulness  of  the  original  record  of  it,  and  the  moral 
grandeur  and  spiritual  beauty  of  the  life  itself.  He  has  followed 
in  no  servile  spirit,  but  with  original  force  of  thought,  his  great 
teacher,  Mr.  Norton,  from  whom,  difiering  in  many  things,  lie 
caught  the  impulse  to  this  line  of  inquiry,  this  work  of  love,  in 
which  his  merit  has  been  unique,  his  service  one  never  to  be 
forgotten.  To  this  it  maj'  be  added,  with  universal  consent, 
that  his  living  example  has  been  in  harmony  with  the  great 
subject  of  his  studies,  and  has  done  as  much  as  that  of  any 
minister  to  show  the  worth  of  the  oflSce  of  spiritual  instructor 
to  a  generation  too  ready  to  distrust  those  who  exercise  it. 
Though  not  many  years  younger,  I  have  the  habit  of  looking 
up  to  him,  and  he  is  one  of  those  from  whom  inspiration  and 
strength  have  flowed  into  my  soul  when  most  needed. 

I  am,  brethren,  yours  in  Christian  fellowship,  with  thanks 
for  your  kind  invitation,  and  full  sympathy  with  you  in  all 
that  belongs  to  a  most  memorable  occasion. 

Oliver  Stearns. 


RoxBURY,  Mass.,  January  7th,  1875. 
Dear  Sirs  :  I  very  much  regret  that  the  state  of  my  health 
forbids  ray  being  present  at  the  commemoration,  not  of  the 
close,  thank  God  !  but  of  the  close  of  the  first  fifty  years  of  the 
ministry  of  Dr.  Furness.  I  regret  it  not  only  on  account  of  my 
personal  affection  for  the  minister,  but  because  it  has  been  a 
ministry  eminently  after  my  own  heart,  one  that  I  admire  ex- 
ceedingly. "What  I  know  of  it  is  derived  only  from  glimpses 
and  intuitions,  and  will  be  filled  out  and  corrected  by  the  fuller 
face-to-face  knowledge  of  the  parishioners.  It  has  looked  to  me 
at  this  distance  as  a  ministry  of  a  mild  and  quiet  type,  as  of  one 
that  doth  not  strive  nor  cry,  neither  doth  any  man  hear  his 
voice  in  the  streets.  Other  ministries  have  been  more  effective 
as  the  multitude  measures  eflSciency,  dealing  with  larger  crowds, 
using  more  complex  agencies,  and  touching  society  at  more 
numerous  points  of  interest  and  with  intonsor  action  ;  but  within 
its  own  sphere  it  has  dealt  with  a  profoundness  and  fidelity  not 
elsewhere  surpassed  with  the  soul's  greatest  interests,  uncom- 
promising in  its  absolute  loyalty  to  truth  and  right,  always 
taking    the    highest  ground,   always    elevated    and    elevating. 


88 


always  searching,  quickening,  soothing,  sanctifying  to  heart 
and  conscience,  a  lifelong  dispensary  of  Sermons  from  the 
Mount. 

The  specialty  of  this  ministry,  it  seems  to  me,  has  been  the 
unfolding  of  the  personality  and  character  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
I  do  not  believe  there  is  a  pulpit  in  Christendom  that  has  done 
so  much  to  penetrate  the  heart  and  life  of  the  Master  to  its 
inmost  depths,  and  open  its  riches  to  the  sympathies  and  ac- 
ceptance of  men,  as  that  Philadelphia  pulpit  for  the  last  fifty 
years.  Every  shade  and  turn  of  thought,  every  gleam  of 
emotion  heavenward  and  earthward,  all  the  sweet  humanity 
and  grand  divinity  of  that  wonderful  soul,  have  been  discerned 
and  delineated  there  as  never  elsewhere,  I  think,  and  dwelt  on 
with  all  the  earnest  zeal  and  affectionate  faith  of  a  disciple,  and 
all  the  enthusiastic  appreciation  of  an  artist — dwelt  on  almost 
too  exclusively  one  might  think,  were  it  not  done  by  one  who 
knew  how  to  draw  all  living  waters  from  that  one  well,  and 
bring  up  all  the  gold  and  gems  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  uni- 
verse from  that  one  mine.  I  have  no  doubt  this  has  been  done 
in  this  case,  so  far  as  any  single  mind  can  be  comprehensive 
and  all-sided  enough  to  do  it. 

The  ministry  which  you  commemorate  has  been  singularly 
self-contained,  that  is,  has  been  carried  on  apart  from  all  official 
and  organic  connection  with  other  ministries,  without  denomina- 
tional bonds,  with  no  outside  ties  except  those  of  a  fraternal  and 
genial  spirit.  I  sympathize  with  the  characteristics  of  Dr. 
Furness'  ministry  ;  my  own  has  been  conducted  on  a  similar 
plan,  though  I  fear  with  less  fixedness  of  principle,  and  less 
consistency  of  action.  Most  of  our  brethren  will  call  this  our 
fault,  our  limitation.  Well,  they  are  the  majority,  and  must 
decide  that  point ;  only  I  am  sure  they  will  have  the  charity  to 
own  that  we,  being  such  as  we  are,  could  do  no  otherwise. 

You  of  Philadelphia  do  not  need  reminding;  but  I  want  to 
express  my  own  appreciation  of  the  manner  in  which  the  ministry 
you  celebrate  has  all  along  been  adorned,  refined,  deepened,  and 
broadened  by  literary  studies  and  artistic  taste  and  culture, 
bringing  to  that  ministry  contributions,  or  rather  an  aroma 
and  innumerable  subtle  and  sweet  influences  from  all  realms  of 
spiritual  beauty  and  fragrance  and  sunshine. 

Shall  I  dare  in  such  a  letter  as  this  to  make  allusion  to  the 
way  that  looks  to  me  so  felicitous,  in  which  the  church  in  the 


89 


sanctuary  has  been  supplementeil  by  "the  church  in  the  house?" 
To  my  eye  and  my  remembrance  the  homo  in  Tine  Street,  and 
the  church  on  Locust  and  Tenth,  in  the  hospitabh',  genial,  cheer- 
ful, affectionate,  and  ever  gracious  spirit  that  pervaded  them 
both,  were  always  the  counterparts  and  archetypes  of  one  an- 
other, each  reflecting  what  was  best  and  brightest  and  holiest 
in  the  other. 

Though  this  long  ministry  lias  been  characteristically  so  quiet 
and  even  and  suave,  it  has  had  ei)ochs  and  aspects,  or  one  at 
least,  of  the  kind,  in  presence  of  which  the  earth  is  shaken,  and 
principalities  and  powers  are  prostrated.  We  may  have  doubted 
the  wisdom  and  necessity  of  the  course  taken  by  our  brother; 
but  we  cannot  fail  to  recogni/e  the  sublime  moral  grandeur  of 
clear  and  strong  convictions  adhered  to  and  acted  on,  with  im- 
movable persistence,  at  all  risks  and  at  all  cost,  and  though  the 
heavens  fall.  We  should  be  blind  not  to  discern  there  the  stuft' 
of  which  martyrs  were  made,  and  the  spirit  that  bore  the  meek 
and  gentle  Jesus  to  his  cross. 

Perhaps  my  mind  has  dwelt  more  on  the  jubilee  from  the 
fact  that  if  all  had  gone  well  with  me,  I  should  have  been  the 
next  among  the  liberal  ministers,  so  far  as  I  know,  to  have  been 
entitled  to  such  an  occasion  for  myself.  I  have  had  my  nine 
lustra,  and  if  the  tenth  fail  why  should  I  complain  ?  I  can  still 
rejoice  with  all  my  heart  in  the  well-earned  honors  and  haj.pi- 
ness  of  my  well-beloved  friend  and  brother  in  Philadelphia. 
Very  truly  yours, 

George  Putnam. 

106  MARLBOROrr.u  Stiikkt, 

Boston,  January  4tli,  IS?."). 

Deak  Sirs:  I  am  deeply  indebted  to  you  for  the  very  kind 
invitation  to  be  present  at  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  Dr.  Fur- 
ness'  settlement.  I  regret  to  say  that  I  cannot  leave  my  work 
at  that  time. 

I  am  sure  that  you  have  reason  t<.  thank  (Jod  and  take  courage 
as  you  look  back  upon  the  half  century.  Dr.  Furness  has  served 
nobly  both  in  Church  and  State,  and  has  done  mucli  to  show 
that  the  two  are  indeed  one.  My  warmest  wishes  accompany 
him  as  he  enters  upon  his  green  old  ag.',  whieli  surely  lacks 
nothing  that  should  go  along  with  it.     3Iay  he  have  the  out- 

12 


90 


ward  strength,  as  he  is  sure  to  have  the  inward  desire,  to  speak 
to  you  and  for  you  these  nnany  years. 

Gratefully  and  sincerely  yours, 

EuFus  Ellis. 


Portland,  Maine,  January  4th,  1875. 

It  is  with  great  regret  that  I  find  myself  unable  to  accept 
your  kind  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of 
the  settlement  of  the  Kev.  Dr.  Furness.  - 

During  the  whole  of  that  fifty  years,  and  it  embraces  all  my 
life  excepting  the  seven  years  of  infancy,  I  have  had  near  rela- 
tions and  friends  among  the  parishioners  and  lovers  of  Dr.  Fur 
ness,  so  that  my  interest  in  the  occasion  is  almost  personal. 
But  I  am  obliged  to  be  in  Philadelphia  a  fortnight  later,  and 
cannot  possibly  spare  the  time  for  both  journeys. 

With  the  most  cordial  congratulations  for  both  pastor  and 
people,  and  the  hope  of  many  happy  returns  of  the  season,  I 
remain, 

Very  respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

Thomas  Hill. 


Cambridge,  Mass.,  January  2d,  1875. 

Gentlemen  :  I  am  very  sorry  that  I  cannot  accept  j^our  kind 
invitation  to  be  present  at  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  settle- 
ment of  Dr.  Furness  as  your  minister. 

The  fact  of  so  long  a  pastorship  is  itself  noteworthy  in  these 
days  of  change ;  but,  in  this  case,  we  have  all  a  special  right  to 
be  sharers  in  your  joy,  since  we  have  received  our  part  in  the 
fruit  of  your  minister's  labors  during  these  fifty  years.  Dr. 
Furness  has  set  an  example,  rare  in  these  days  of  divided  and 
superficial  work,  not  only  by  his  devotion  to  a  single  parish 
during  so  long  a  period,  but  also  by  his  consecration  to  one 
chosen  line  of  thought.  He  selected  the  noblest  theme  and 
gave  his  life  to  it,  and  made  us  all  his  debtors.  With  thanks 
for  your  kind  invitation,  and  congratulations  for  minister  and 

people, 

I  am,  yours  very  truly, 

C.  C.  Everett. 


91 


Boston,  January  9th,  1875. 

Gentlemen:  Since  I  heard  that  your  jubilee  was  proposed  I 
have  hoped  to  be  able  to  be  present,  but  I  am,  at  the  hist  moment, 
disappointed.  I  think  our  friends  in  Philadelphia  must  under- 
stand that  they  are  only  a  very  small  part  of  the  multitude  of 
people  who  are  grateful  to  Dr.  Furness  for  the  labors  and  the 
love  of  his  wonderful  life.  So  soon  as  we  who  were  then 
youngsters  found  out  how  he  preached,  we  used  to  say  we  would 
walk  fifty  miles  barefoot  to  hear  him,  if  there  were  no  other 
way  to  enjoy  that  privilege.  But  even  more  than  the  preaching, 
it  was  the  reading  of  the  books,  and  the  living  picture  which 
the}'-  gave  us  of  the  Saviour's  life,  that  set  us  on  a  track  of 
preaching  and  of  thought  wholly  new. 

Let  me  congratulate  the  congregation  on  his  health  and 
strength,  and  pray  express  for  a  multitude  of  us  our  love  and 
gratitude  to  him. 

Trul}'-  yours, 

Edward  E.  Hale. 

Dorchester,  Mass.,  January  10th,  1875. 

Gentlemen  :  I  have  delayed  replying  to  your  letter  of  in- 
vitation to  be  present  with  you  on  the  12th  instant,  because, 
while  my  very  earnest  desire  was  to  accept  it,  and  my  heart 
spontaneously  said  "yes,"  there  were  circumstances  making  it 
questionable  whether  I  could.  Those  circumstances,  I  am  sorry 
to  have  now  to  say,  have  decided  for  me  that  I  must  deny  my- 
self the  hoped-for  pleasure. 

I  can  do  no  less,  gentlemen,  than  express  to  you,  and  those 
for  whom  you  act,  m\"  sincere  thanks  for  this  thought  of  me  in 
such  connection,  and  for  including  me  among  the  friends  of 
your  minister  who  were  considered  worthy  to  bo  gathered 
around  him  on  such  an  occasion. 

Though  I  can  hardly  believe  that  my  presence  would  add 
anything  to  the  enjoyment  of  it,  I  think  no  one  will  enter  more 
heartily  than  I  should  into  all  that  belongs  to  it  for  mrmory 
and  sentiment  and  affection  and  benediction. 

Your  minister  seems  very  near  to  me  as  he  is  very  dear.  My 
acquaintance  with  him  dates  back  to  his  boyhood.  He  is  most 
intimately  associated  in  memory,  as  he  was  in  fact,  with  those 
nearest  to  me  of  my  early  home,  whose  love  for  him  I  shared  ; 


P12 


<\  l.M  1'  l.>\ni>.l  \\i(l\  Miliwii '(I  i.'n  (><i  l\i^  ill  3|>.>  lil  ii>m  Mini  liiTl'i. 
'V\\v\,  nil'  nil  ^iino  di  wlinin  I  nlluili',  niul  lli'-  iii.mo  (.mhIi'iIv  l<>f 
{\\W{.  «1<»m   my  \\^\\H^  ttW  If  l»iM\ll»<ft'   MfO>   l«»v<>    willi  il=>  own.  om 

Im'««*o  blm  «ni1  Ihln  i^ooHsliMi 

AmiI    IIii'  roi>liMi>«»  iuaplvi'il    Im    11ii>3,i  oinli.M    ini>nii»rii>=j  (iMViUilo 

\\\U\    \\\\\\\\\    \\\    llUfl   l>l'l>l1«>llM»     V«IU   PO   iloPfM  Vl>lUV    ll-MI.M     1mi\i'    l»i>iMI. 

I  luu'illv  ni>oil  «>«\,  i'«M\H»\(mllv  iloopoMlt^y,',  n«  I  lin\.'  (.>lli>\v.«l 
\\\\\\  l)\»o\ii»h  III"  m»>  pImoo,  t\\\\\  po»»u  <I\i>  )Mon\ipo  ouv  IichiIp 
lOiiM  i«l\»»(l   \u   M«n  ^imIoM   lowindp  m  riilllln\«M\l  po  lioiuiliTuI  i\\\\\ 

\\sy<\  liot\i(U\  \U\  \  oon^rnluliid'  (ho  humhU.mp  ol' I\Ib  POoitMy  in 
Hio  piMvlU^^o  ti\<\v  l\n\MMM\|<\yo»l  in  liini  \vh«»Br>  vtM'y  pr»»i*onoo  h»\B 
ho,M\  rt  l><M\<^«Uon«M\,  iM\\l  vvl\opi»  1H«\  \\\  ii"  piin|>Uol!y  inhl  siuuMHy 
t\\\\\  liinuMo  hiMoipiu  in\<l  <j,>ir.ilov«>tinii  lM«»li(y,  Iu^p  ^^vo1\  puoh 
on\|No\v«Mmi>n1  U\  hip  worilo,  t\«\»l  \v«>m  Tor  (I\im»\  p>\oh  )>li>«'o  in 
«uiM\v  U^M\i'(p  )^oy«>\^»1  tl\iNa<»  \vl\,s  l\i\vo  boon  H^i^  ituiuo^liiHo  ro 
oi)\itM\l'>  M  thoin 

M\>\'l\  \UOh^  ip  in  in;y  \w\{\[  t«>  Piiy  ;  Io^q  1  ronUI  n>H.  in  juplioo 
t<>  mypn^lfH  W\\\\  «n  ri  rttUn^'  »Mv«|\on!»ir»  y\\\o  ni.>^f  po  in  n\y  |\ONVor  U\ 
mrtKo)  to  yAMiv  vt^vy  \<\\\x\  invit«\tion. 

\i  \  \\\\\.\  !>o  rtUowo^l  (o  >\il<1  \\\\M  i"  oo  wlioUv  imm^oumI  <o  n<y- 
Ml\  t  \vonh<  s«iy  {\\M  \\u'>  nuMUv^viop  whi^h  oonn<>o(  n\y'»ol1'  \vil)\ 
>->MU'  ol\uv\*!\  rtp  ^^oiny,  tho  f\vp<  1  ovor  )>vorto)\o<l  in,  Oorly-ono 
y^'^rtvfl  rtii\>,  m\\\  ll»o  n^on\^^^•io'^  ,\r  <)\<vpo  \^r  \{  \vh»»  po  Kin»1ly  vo 
\H^ivot<  \\\^  ^^po  «>rtny  »>r  v\l\x>n\  h«vo  p»\t!PO»l  iwvrtyV  luwo  tlooiM-^no^i 
\^\V  <^t^phv  towwrtip  nn  <>»s»rt?»io»  \>f  suoh   vmio^l  awA   touohini) 

<<\ilMVP<.       Wi<)>  0\Opm\^M' thrM    l..^■>>.>M  .  M.^     tM.v  ,M.M    V.X.I  ...>.>» 

i\\inip<ov  \^\\x\  \\\\^]s\\\ 

\  «n>.  I  o  j^.'.  Ill',;  ;\   _\  .^\u  'i. 

N  Kvw  \\\v\   W  \\  \ 

V<^\i'y  Wwny  thrtnKt  Tor  y»>nr  kin»<  invi<rt(i>M\.  \  h^\vort  \vovU\i«ti; 
xN»\  0\o  «ia,ht  o<  ,^rtnuf^vy  \'2\\\,  \\\\w\\  \  (W\v»  »\s  I  Imvo  not,  ?«<>  l\\r, 
tvs^n  Hblo  t»N  ^^xNs^><Nnoov  HvU  rtnxs\  wiU  |MW<^nt  n\\  j5>MHia"  t'>  Vhil«- 

you  oi  <ho  )i;<NV\t  p\\^MUt^  \  wonUi  t«Ko  in  witno^sin^-  tho  vvIoIwh- 
Ux>«  xnV«w  t^XM^Wi,  »xN  w«<^k^l  in  o\>v  vSNUvmon  histANjy,  «nv\  so  (\\\\ 
of  impt»M^tt\M\  10  «^  )^Mn\|i:  w>«n  Uko  «\y!eoll\  nuri  \  hoj>o  th^l 
Kv«n(\i\\\  Ut^^  \\hi\'h  h»^»  i»<N  b\oiiiR<M    you  th\>NUjih  ih^veo  ^\tv«r)^, 


93 

may  be  spared  to  repeat,  in  your  midst,  that  old  story,  which 
he  has  made  so  living,  of  God's  great  mercy  and  love  made  real 
in  the  divine  life  on  earth.     With  greetings  and  congratulation.", 

I  am  most  truly, 

C.  K.  AVkld. 


St.  Louis,  January  4th,  1875. 

Dear  Sirs:  Your  kind  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  com- 
memoration of  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  Dr.  Furness'  settle- 
ment in  Philadelphia  was  to-day  received,  and  I  wish  for  my 
own  sake  that  I  could  accept  it.  But  my  engagements  here 
are  such  as  to  make  it  impossible  for  me  to  leave  St.  Louis,  and 
I  must  be  content  to  stay  at  home.  Dr.  Furness  was  one  of  my 
earliest  friends  and  guides,  to  whom  I  have  always  looked  up 
with  sincere  affection  and  respect.  He  officiated  at  my  mar- 
riage with  the  best  woman  that  ever  lived,  and  1  associate  him 
with  all  the  purest  happiness  and  success  of  my  own  life. 

William  Henry  Furness  :  For  fifty  years  of  faithful  service, 
the  brave  and  consistent  advocate,  in  good  report  and  evil  re- 
port, of  Freedom,  Truth,  and  Righteousness  :  :May  his  last  days 
still  be  his  best  days. 

I  remain,  very  truly  yours, 

W.  Ct.  Eliot. 


CuiCAco,  January  Vdh,  ISTf). 

Gentlemen  :  When  you  sent  me  an  invitation  to  be  pres«'nt 
at  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  settlement  of  my  dear  friend 
and  yours,  I  felt  sure  I  should  be  able  to  come.  My  youngest 
boy  had  been  sick  then  for  some  weeks,  so  that  1  could  only 
leave  him  a  few  hours  at  a  time,  and  for  the  most  imperious 
reasons.  But  on  the  Saturday  he  was  so  much  worse  that  1 
had  to  telegraph  I  feared  I  could  not  leave  him  at  that  time. 

There  can  be  but  few  reasons  in  a  man's  whole  lifetime  so 
strong  as  mine  was  then  for  coming  to  Phila.ielphia,  but  the 
poor  little  fellow  begged  I  would  be  with  him  through  a  very 
dano-erous  operation  tlie  surgeons  had  t.)  perforn.  on  the  day  I 
should  have  been   with  yo„,  from  whieh  we  were  not  sure  he 

could  rally. 

Pardon   me  for  touching  with   this  private  .orrow  your  ex- 


94 


ceeding  joy,  and  accept  this  for  my  reason  why  I  have  not 
written  sooner. 

I  did  not  want  to  intrude  these  things  at  all  even  into  the 
blessed  after-taste  of  your  festival.  But  as  it  seems  to  me  no 
man  on  the  earth  could  be  so  strongly  drawn  to  that  festival  as 
I  was,  from  any  distance,  I  cannot  say  another  word  until  you 
know  the  whole  reason  why  I  was  not  with  you. 

For  my  debt  of  gratitude  to  Dr.  Furness  takes  precedence  of 
my  love  for  him  as  one  of  the  truest  friends  a  man  ever  had, 
and  as  my  peerless  preacher  of  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus," 
some  years  before  I  emigrated  to  America,  my  soul  clove  to 
him  as  I  sat  one  day  in  a  little  thatched  cottage  in  the  heart  of 
Yorkshire  and  read  "  The  Journal  of  a  Poor  Vicar." 

I  never  expected  to  see  him  in  the  flesh  then,  but  I  remember 
how  I  cherished  that  exquisite  little  thing  among  my  choicest 
treasures  ;  read  it  over  and  over  again ;  spoke  of  it  to  other  lads 
of  a  like  mind  with  my  own,  and  got  a  worth  out  of  it  I  had 
not  then  begun  to  get  out  of  sermons. 

I  knew  also,  when  I  got  to  Philadelphia,  that  I  could  hear 
my  man  preach  if  I  wanted  to,  and  made  out  where  the  church 
was ;  but  I  had  been  taught  from  my  childhood  to  give  such 
churches  a  wide  berth,  and  had  not  the  sense  to  see  that  the 
well,  out  of  which  I  had  drawn  such  sweet  waters  in  England, 
must  still  be  flowing  with  some  such  blessing  in  America.  So 
that  mighty  movement  that  ended  in  breaking  the  fetters  from 
the  slave,  had  to  break  mine,  and  then  it  was  not  very  long  before 
I  stole  into  the  church  one  dismal  Sunday  night,  when  being- 
good  Unitarians,  all  but  about  a  dozen  of  you,  you  had  your 
feet  in  slippers  on  the  fender. 

It  was  not  a  sermon,  but  a  talk  about  Jesus;  and  how  he 
washed  their  feet,  and  what  they  saw,  and  what  he  said,  and 
how  it  all  came  home  to  the  preacher ;  but  as  I  went  home  I 
thought,  as  so  many  have  done  time  and  time  again,  if  that  is 
Unitarianism  I  am  a  Unitarian. 

When  again  I  met  my  author  and  preacher  at  the  house  of  my 
friend,  Edward  M.  Davis,  it  did  not  take  long  for  my  gratitude 
to  grow  into  love.  He  was  positively  the  first  minister  of  the 
sort  we  call  "  ministers  in  good  standing,"  except  Mrs.  Lu- 
cretia  Mott,  who  had  not  tried  to  patronize  me,  and  put  up  the 
bars  of  a  superior  social  station. 

If  I  had  been  his  younger  brother,  he  could  not  have  been 


96 


more  frank  and  tender  and  free  of  lioart  and  hand.  T  siipjiose 
he  never  thought  of  it  for  an  instant,  and  tliat  was  where  ho 
had  me,  or  I  should  have  put  up  my  bars.  For,  in  those  days, 
I  guess  I  was  about  as  proud  as  Lucifer.  So,  it  was  a  great 
pride  and  joy  in  1857,  to  be  invited  to  preach  in  his  pulpit, 
while  he  went  off  to  marry  another  son  in  tli<'  failh,  Moncure 
D.  Conway,  to  be  the  guest,  for  that  day,  "f  your  minister's 
family,  to  have  Mrs.  Furness  and  the  children  treat  me  like 
a  prince  and  a  preacher  all  in  one,  and  to  have  a  glorious  good 
time  altogether,  as  any  man  ever  iiad  in  tliis  wcirld. 

Being  good  Unitarians  again  in  those  days,  at  least  half  of 
you  ran  off  to  hear  Brother  Chapin  in  the  morning,  who  was 
preaching  somewhere  round  the  corner,  just  as  my  people  run 
now  to  hear  Brother  Swing  when  I  am  away,  and  have  to  sup- 
ply with  some  man  they  never  heard  of.  I  have  never  quite 
forgiven  Chapin  for  preaching  there  that  Sunday. 

But  Annie  Morrison  was  there,  and  the  very  elect,  who  are 
always  there,  and  on  the  next  Sunday,  when  I  preached  again, 
the  rest  were  there,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  seemed  to  me  to 
fill  the  house,  and  so  your  church  is  to  me  one  of  the  most 
precious  places  on  earth,  I  came  to  it  as  the  men  of  Israel 
went  to  Zion,  and  all  these  years  have  but  deepened  and  purified 
my  love  for  the  good  old  place.  Where  I  first  iieard  the  truth 
which  met  at  once  my  reason  and  my  faith,  and  where,  within 
a  church,  for  the  first  time  I  felt  I  was  perfectly  free. 

And  so  it  is,  that  I  dare  not  write  down  the  sum  of  my  love 
for  my  friend  and  his  family,  as  1  could  not  have  told  it  if  I 
had  come  down.  I  feel  I  am  under  bonds  not  to  do  it ;  I  can 
only  hint  at  it. 

He  got  used  to  blame  in  the  old  sad  days,  when  he  could  not 
count  such  hosts  of  lovers  and  friends  outside  his  own  church 
as  he  can  now,  but  he  will  never  get  used  to  praise.  Some  men 
don't.  I  must  say,  however,  that  I  do  not  see  how  I  should 
ever  have  made  my  way  into  our  blessed  faith,  had  he  not  opened 
the  door  for  me;  or  found  my  way  to  Chicago  but  for  his  failh 
that  I  was  the  man  they  wanted  here  ;  or  done  anything  I  have 
ever  been  able  to  do  half  so  well,  but  for  his  generous  encour- 
agement, or  found  my  life  at  all  .so  full  of  sunshine,  as  it  has 
been  so  many  years,  had  he  not  given  me  of  his  store. 

Now  and  then,  the  ways  of  God  do  visibly  strike  great  liur- 
monies  in  life  and  history,  and  this  perfecting  of  the  circle  of 


96 


fifty  years  in  the  ministry  of  my  dear  friend,  is  one  of  the  har- 
monies of  life.  He  has  seen  the  travail  of  his  soul  for  the  slave, 
and  is  satisfied. 

He  has  lived  through  the  days  when  the  majority  of  Uni- 
tarians were  content  with  being  not  very  unlike  the  Orthodox, 
into  the  days  when  the  Orthodox  are  not  content,  if  they  are 
not  very  like  Unitarians,  and  he  has  done  one  of  the  heaviest 
strokes  of  work  in  bringing  this  resolution  about. 

And  he  has  lived  to  prove  to  those  of  us  who  may  wonder 
sometimes,  what  is  coming  when  we  have  preached  to  our 
people  a  few  more  years ;  and  it  gets  to  be  an  old  story,  how  a 
man  may  preach  right  along,  just  as  long  as  he  can  stand,  and 
then  sit  down  to  it  as  Jesus  did  on  the  Mount ;  grow  better  all 
the  time ;  win  a  wider  and  truer  hearing  at  the  end  of  fifty 
years  than  he  has  at  the  end  of  twenty-five  ;  and  then,  when  he 
is  "  quite  worn  out  with  age,"  may  cry,  "  Lord,  now  lettest  thy 
servant  depart  in  peace  according  to  thy  word,  for  mine  eyes 
have  seen  thy  salvation." 

Surely  yours, 

Robert  Collyer. 


97 


The  following  extracts  are  taken  liom  the  Liberal 
Christian  and  Christian  Register  : 

"On  Tuesday  of  next  week,  Jaiiimry  rjtli,  Ukm-l-  will  he  a 
very  simple  celebration  of  a  deeply  interestinj^  occasion.  It 
will  then  be  fifty  years  since  Kev.  Dr.  Furness  was  installed  as 
pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Unitarian  Church  in  riiila- 
delphia.  Next  Sunday  the  venerable  pastor  will  delivca-  an 
appropriate  discourse.  Tuesday  he  will  receive  callers  at  his 
house,  and  in  the  evening  there  will  be  a  meeting  at  the  church. 
Brief  addresses  are  expected  from  friends,  whose  homes  are  in 
Missouri,  Illinois,  Maryland,  New  York,  and  New  England. 

"  At  the  installation  on  the  I'ith  of  January,  1825,  Kev.  Wil- 
liam Ware,  of  New  York,  aged  twenty-seven  years,  oflered  the 
introductory  prayer  and  read  from  the  Scriptures  ;  Kev.  Henry 
Ware,  Jr.,  of  Boston,  aged  thirty  years,  preached  the  sermon, 
most  of  which  we  intend  to  reprint  next  week ;  Kev.  Dr.  Bancroft, 
of  Worcester,  in  his  seventieth  year,  offered  the  ordaining  prayer 
and  gave  the  charge;  and  Kev.  Ezra  S.  Gannett,  aged  twenty- 
three  years,  gave  the  fellowship  of  the  churches  and  offered  the 
concluding  prayer.  Dr.  Furness  himself  was  twenty-two  years 
old,  having  been  graduated  at  Harvard  College  when  he  was 
only  eighteen.  None  of  those  who  took  the  prominent  })arts  in 
the  service  are  now  living  on  earth.  Dr.  Gannett  and  the 
Wares,  though  then  in  all  the  strength  and  i)romise  of  their 
early  manhood," have  followed  good  old  Dr.  Bancroft  to  the 
heavenly  home. 

"  Dr.  Furness  was  installed  a  few  weeks  before  the  ordinations 
of  Rev.  Drs.  Alexander  Young  and  Samuel  Barrett.  The  ser- 
vices were  reported  in  the  first  number  of  the  second  volume  of 
the  Christian  Examiner,  and  in  the  lourtli  volume  of  the  Chris- 
tian Register.  It  was  four  months  before  the  organization  of 
the  American  Unitarian  Association.  James  Monroe  was  Pres- 
ident of  the  United  States.  Bost(»n  had  been  a  city  only  three 
years,  and  had  about  fifty  thousand  inhabitants  ;  New  York  had 
about  a  hundred  and  sixty  thousand,  and  Philadeli.hia  about  a 
hundred  and  forty  thousand.  It  was  the  same  year  in  which 
the  first  public  railway  in  England  was  opi'iied,  the  passengers 
being  drawn  by  horse-power,  although  loc«>motives  were  soon 
introduced.     It  was  five  years  before  Dr.  Putnam's  settlement 

13 


98 


in  Eoxbury,  nine  years  before  Dr.  Lotlirop  was  called  to  Brattle 
Square,  ten  years  before  Kev.  N.  Hall  became  junior  pastor  of 
the  Dorchester  First  Parish,  and  twelve  years  before  Dr.  Bartol 
became  Dr.  Lowell's  colleague.  Dr.  Bellows,  aged  ten  years, 
and  James  Freeman  Clarke,  fourteen,  were  school-boys.  Kev. 
E.  E.  Hale  was  scarcely  old  enough  to  go  to  school,  and  Prof. 
C.  C.  Everett  had  not  been  born.  It  was  less  than  half  a  century 
since  the  battles  of  Lexington  and  Concord,  and  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son and  John  Adams  did  not  die  until  eighteen  months  after- 
wards.    President  Grant  was  then  two  years  old. 

"  During  the  whole  of  the  last  half  century  Dr.  Furness  has 
remained  faithfully  at  his  lonely  post.  He  has  had  no  colleague 
and  no  very  long  vacation,  we  believe.  In  addition  to  his  pul- 
pit work  he  has  written  some  admirable  books,  besides  trans- 
lating others.  Great  changes  have  occurred  in  public  opinion. 
Eight  years  after  the  beginning  of  his  ministry  in  Philadelphia 
the  American  Antislavery  Society  was  formed  in  that  city. 
He  did  not  join  it  immediately,  but  before  long  he  enlisted  in 
the  ranks  of  the  abolitionists,  and  neither  blandishments  nor 
threats  ever  caused  him  to  desert  from  the  forlorn  hope  of  free- 
dom. For  many  years,  when  almost  every  other  pulpit  of  that 
great  town,  so  near  the  borders  of  Slave  States,  was  dumb 
concerning  the  national  sin,  Dr.  Furness'  silver  trumpet  gave 
no  uncertain  sound.  Whoever  might  come,  and  whoever  might 
go,  he  was  resolved  to  be  faithful  to  the  slave.  The  despised 
and  rejected  champions  of  liberty  were  always  sure  of  his  sup- 
port. When  Charles  Sumner,  struck  down  by  the  bludgeon  of 
the  slave  power,  needed  rest  and  healing,  he  sought  them  in  the 
neighborhood  and  society  of  Dr.  Furness.  Together  they  visited 
the  hill  country,  and  mingled  their  congenial  spirits  in  high 
discourse  of  truth  and  righteousness.  We  are  glad  that  at  last, 
with  grateful  ears,  our  venerated  brother  heard  liberty  pro- 
claimed throughout  all  the  land  to  all  the  inhabitants  thereof. 
To  know  that  he  contributed  to  this  blessed  result  must  be  the 
grand  satisfaction  of  his  life,  more  precious  than  any  pride  of 
authorship  or  professional  success.  His  whole  soul  must  respond 
to  Whittier's  declaration  that  he  set  a  higher  value  to  his  name 
as  appended  to  an  early  antislavery  declaration  than  on  the 
title-page  of  any  book.  '  I  cannot  be  sufficiently  thankful  to 
the  Divine  Providence  which  turned  me  so  early  away  from 


99 


what  Koger  Williams  calls  "  the  world's  groat  trinity,  pleasure, 
profit  and  honor,"  to  take  side  with  the  poor  and  oppressed. 
Looking  over  a  life  marked  by  many  errors  and  shortcomings, 
I  rejoice  that 

" '  My  voice,  though  not  the  loudest,  has  been  heard 
Wherever  Freedom  raised  her  cry  of  pain.' 

"But  while  Dr.  Furnoss  must  look  back  with  profoundost 
gratitude  upon  the  groat  triumph  of  justice  which  he  lielped  to 
secure,  he  cannot  be  inditforent  to  the  theological  progress  which 
has  led  to  wide  and  cordial  acceptance  of  many  of  bis  dearest 
opinions.  Once  he  was  one  of  a  small  number  of  Humanitarians 
associated  with  a  great  majority  of  Arians.  Now  the  Arians 
are  nearly  extinct,  and  the  divine  humanity  of  Jesus  is  almost 
orthodox  Unitarianism.  No  other  individual  has  done  more 
to  bring  this  about  than  the  Philadelphia  pastor  who  bas  made 
it  the  stud}'  of  his  life  to  understand  the  spirit  and  to  ]K>rtray, 
in  glowing  yet  truthful  tints,  the  matchless  character  of  the  Son 
of  man.  He  has  been  well  entitled  'the  Fifth  Evangelist.' 
None  of  the  ancient  narrators  ever  lingered  so  fondly  over 
every  trait  of  him  who  was  touched  with  a  feeling  of  our  in- 
firmities, and  made  perfect  through  suffering.  He  has  rendered 
the  sympathy  of  Christ  so  actual  and  available  that  it  is  a 
familiar  help  to  thousands  of  tried  and  lonely  bum:in  >.)ul-,  t<» 
whom  traditional  dogmas  could  give  no  comfort  or  strengtb. 

"  We  have  heard  that  Dr.  Furnoss  is  about  to  retire  from  the 
professional  responsibilities  which  he  has  borne  so  long  and  so 
well.  It  will  be  a  richly  earned  repose,  and  yet  we  cannot 
endure  the  thought  that  ho  is  to  desist  wholly  from  preacbing 
while  his  eye  is  undimmed  and  his  natural  vigor  scarcely 
abated.  Wc  heard  him  last  summer  witb  rare  satisfaction  and 
delight,  and  we  wish  he  could  be  induced  to  speak  oftcnor  at 
our  general  gatherings.  We  have  thougbt  a  great  many  times, 
and  perhaps  we  have  said  so  before,  in  these  columns,  that, 
owing  largely  to  force  of  circumstances.  Dr.  Furnoss  lias  borne 
too  close  a  resemblance  to  Wordsworth's  Milton  whose  *.<;oul 
was  like  a  star,  and  dwelt  apart.'  It  is  too  late  now  for  him 
to  bein  the  slightest  danger  of  becoming  tooi^ocial  or  gregarious. 
We  wish,  most  heartily,  that  he  would  sometimes  moot  with 
the  thousands  of  our  lavmon  and  tbc  IniiKlrcds  of  our  ministers 


100 


to  whom  he  is  personally  a  stranger,  never  seen,  and  never 
heard,  and  yet  they  regard  him  with  affectionate  gratitude  and 
veneration  which  it  would  do  them  good  to  express,  and  not 
harm  him  in  the  least  to  receive.  Let  us  fondly  hope,  then,  that 
at  the  semi-centennial  celebration  of  the  American  Unitarian 
Association,  or  at  the  next  National  Conference,  we  may  hear 
from  this  beloved  father  in  our  Israel  some  of  those  words  of 
wisdom,  truth,  and  beauty  which  it  is  still  his  mission  to  speak." 
— Christian  Reglstei'. 

"  Philadelphia,  January  12tb,  1875. 

"  It  is  safe  to  predict  that  not  even  the  powerful  attractions 
of  the  National  Centennial  Exposition  will  call  to  this  city  as 
many  of  our  Unitarian  clergy  as  gathered  here  to-night  to  cele- 
brate the  semi-centennial  of  the  settlement  of  Dr.  William  H. 
Furness.  It  is  an  event  to  which  for  some  time  past  many  of 
his  absent  friends  have  looked  eagerly  forward  in  anticipation 
of  its  peculiar  interest  and  significance.  Pastorates  of  fifty  years 
can  never  be  common,  and  have  rarely  furnished  the  necessary 
materials  for  the  heartiest  and  sincerest  sort  of  congratulation. 
But  here  was  an  occasion  of  which  the  anticipations  were  all  of 
the  pleasantest  and  most  unclouded  kind,  where  everybody  felt 
that  it  would  be  a  personal  privilege  to  say  a  congratulatory 
Amen  with  everybody  else,  and  to  say  it  heartily  and  sincerely. 

"  Dr.  Furness'  quiet  but  intensely  individual  ministry  in 
this  city  of  Brotherly  Love  is  too  widely  known  among  Uni- 
tarians to  make  any  mere  mention  of  the  fact  at  all  necessary, 
but  to  speak  of  it  at  length  and  justly  would  be  to  write  a  vol- 
ume;  ample  materials  for  which,  however,  are,  we  are  glad  to 
say,  not  wanting.  But  our  word  must  be  only  of  the  event  of 
to-day. 

"  The  celebration  began,  we  hear,  early  in  the  morning  at  the 
pastor's  house,  where  he  was  delightfully  surprised  by  the  sweet 
carols  of  children's  voices.  In  the  afternoon  a  large  concourse 
of  friends  went  to  greet  him  at  his  home,  where  beautiful  flow- 
ers scented  the  air  and  smiling  faces  vied  with  each  other  in  the 
expression  of  sincere  respect  and  love. 

"  This  evening  the  old  church  is  beautifully  and  richly  dressed 
with  evergreens.  Below  the  pulpit  is  a  solid  mass  of  rare  trop- 
ical plants  most  tastefully  arranged,  the  whole  surmounted  by 


101 

baskets  of  the  choicest  flowers.  The  most  conspicuous  features 
of  the  decorations  are  the  sii^nilicant  numbers  1825-1875,  worked 
in  small  white  flowers  on  either  side  of  the  pulpit. 

''The  old  church  is  full  of  the  Doctor's  parishioners  and 
friends,  the  front  seats  being  occupied  by  the  invited  guests  from 
abroad.  Among  the  clergy  present  we  noticed  Drs.  Lothrop, 
Morison,  Clarke,  Bartol,  Bellows,  Thompson,  A.  P.  Putnam, 
and  Pvev.  Messrs.  White,  E.  H.  Hall,  Shippen,  Ware,  Ames, 
Israel,  Mumford,  Gannett,  Chadwick,  and  several  others. 

"  Dr.  Furness  had  protested  against  his  personal  participation 
in  this  elaborate  and  deliberate  feast  of  Praise,  but  the  timely 
suggestion  that  his  absence  might  be  interpreted  as  a  quiet  '  bid  ' 
for  unlimited  adulation  proved  too  amusing  for  the  equanimity 
of  even  his  modesty,  so  he  came  and  occupied  a  retired  seat  near 
the  door. 

"The  proceedings  wore  of  the  simplest  and  most  informal 
kind— a  genuine  love-feast,  with  more  fullness  of  heart  than  of 
utterance.  Yet  there  was  no  lack  of  pleasant,  hearty  words. 
After  an  anthem,  with  solo,  by  the  accomplished  choir,  which 
seemed  to  have  been  augmented  and  specially  drilled  for  the 
occasion,  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  wel- 
comed the  guests  and  assembled  company,  and  asked  Dr.  Mor- 
ison to  oflfer  prayer.  After  a  soprano  solo,  the  first  speech  of 
the  evening  was  made  by  Rev.  J.  F.  W.  Ware,  whose  father, 
Henry  Ware,  had  preached  Dr.  Furness'  ordination  sermon. 
Dr.  Furness  then  came  forward,  bearing  two  communion  cups 
which  had  just  been  received  as  a  token  of  remembrance  from 
our  church  in  Baltimore.  He  expressed  his  pleasure  at  this 
expression  of  aftectionate  sympathy,  referring,  incidentally,  to 
thepeculiar  method  of  celebrating  the  communion  in  his  church, 
bread  and  wine  not  being  partaken  of,  but  being  placed  on  the 
table  only  as  symbols  of  the  precious  things  they  stand  for. 

"  William  Gannett,  whose  father  gave  the  right  hand  of  fel- 
lowship at  Dr.  Furness'  ordination,  said  that  this  was  the 
principal  reason  for  his  presence  here  to-night.  His  modest 
cordial  words  were  followed  by  others,  from  Rev.  E.  H.  Hall 
and  Dr.  Lothrop.  Dr.  J.  F.  Clarke  then  read  an  original 
poem,  in  which,  in  strong  and  elo-juent  words,  he  commended 
Dr.  Furness'  earnest  and  persistent  eftort'^  to  i)res..nt  more 
clearly  to  the  world  the  living  Jesus  as  distinguished  from  the 


102 


theological  or  sentimental  Christ.  Dr.  Bartol  and  Dr.  Thomp- 
son then  added  their  cordial  testimony  of  appreciation.  Mr. 
Chadwick  read  a  lovely  original  poem,  full  of  appreciative 
references  to  some  of  Dr.  Furness'  more  distinguished  cotem- 
poraries.  Messrs.  Shippen,  Mumford,  White,  and  Ames,  each 
said  a  few  words,  and  Dr.  Bellows  finished  the  sweet  symphony 
of  praise  with  a  genial  portraiture  of  Dr.  Furness,  thanking 
the  Lord  that  no  amount  of  culture  had  in  any  respect  weak- 
ened the  vigorous  manhood  of  his  friend,  and  that  God  made 
him  just  what  he  is. 

"  After  music,  and  a  benediction  by  Dr.  Furness,  the  large 
company  separated,  evidently  deeply  pleased  by  the  many 
hearty  testimonies  of  the  evening." — Liberal  Christian. 

"Yesterday  morning,  at  seven  o'clock,  the  pupils  of  Madame 
Seiler,  an  accomplished  teacher  of  music,  and  author  of  several 
excellent  text-books,  gave  a  serenade  to  Dr.  Furness  and  his 
household.  It  must  have  been  a  delightful  surprise  to  the 
awakened  family  when  the  sweet  sounds  began  to  ascend  from 
the  hall  below,  where  the  singers,  according  to  the  Bulletin, 
stood  'candle  in  hand,'  and  paid  this  delicate  and  welcome 
compliment,  in  the  good  old  German  style.  Between  the  hours 
of  twelve  and  six,  hundreds  of  parishioners  and  friends  called 
to  congratulate  the  honored  pastor  upon  the  successful  comple- 
tion of  his  half  century  of  service.  Most  of  the  time  the  rooms 
were  thronged,  and  such  an  array  of  bright  and  happy  faces  is 
seldom  seen.  Among  the  guests  who  were  present  during  our 
brief  stay  we  noticed  the  Doctor's  children  and  grandchildren. 
Prof.  Goodwin,  of  Harvard  University,  and  Mrs.  Eustis, 
daughter  of  Rev.  Dr.  W.  E.  Channing. 

"  Last  evening  there  was  a  driving  storm  of  sleet  and  rain,  but 
the  church  was  packed  again.  The  floral  display  was  equal  to 
that  of  Sunday.  Among  the  changes  we  observed  that  the 
large  figures  '  1825 '  and  '  1875,'  above  the  pulpit,  were  made 
of  pure  white  flowers  instead  of  white  and  red  as  before.  After 
prayer  by  Rev.  Dr.  Morison,  Mr.  Henry  Winsor,  Chairman  of 
the  Committee  of  Arrangements,  made  a  felicitous  welcoming 
and  introductory  speech. 

"The  first  clerical  speaker  was  Rev.  J.  F.  W.  Ware,  son  and 
nephew  of  the  young  Wares  who,  fifty  years  before,  had  taken 


103 


prominent  parts  at  the  installation  service.  His  remurUs  were 
full  of  the  warmest  affection  for  Dr.  Furncss,  and  the  tenderest 
allusions  to  the  love  cherished  for  his  Philadelphia  '  brother  ' 
by  Henry  Ware,  Jr.  Agreeably  to  the  request  of  the  com- 
mittee, Mr.  Ware  asked  Kcv.  W.  C.  Gannett  to  follow  him. 
Mr.  Gannett's  father  gave  Dr.  Furness  the  right  hand  of  fellow- 
ship, and  Mr.  Gannett  had  just  been  reading  the  manuscript 
copy  of  that  earnest  address,  on  his  way  to  Phihidelphia  in  the 
cars.  His  speech  was  eminently  appropriate  and  impressive. 
He  was  followed  by  Kev.  E.  H.  Hall,  of  Worcester,  suc- 
cessor of  Kev.  Dr.  Bancroft,  who  gave  the  charge  at  the  in- 
stallation half  a  century  before,  and  son  of  Kev.  Dr.  E.  B.  Hall, 
who  was  Dr.  Furness'  townsman,  friend,  classmate,  and  room- 
mate. After  most  appreciative  mention  of  the  noble  labors  of 
our  fathers,  Mr.  Hall  spoke  eloquently  of  the  peculiar  work 
which  each  generation  has  to  do  for  itself  and  the  world.  Kev. 
Drs.  Lothrop,  Clarke,  Bartol,  Thompson,  A.  P.  Putnam,  and 
Bellows,  and  Messrs.  Chadwick,  Shippen,  White,  Mumford, 
and  Ames  were  called  upon,  and  the  most  of  them  responded  ; 
but  we  have  no  space  for  their  remarks  this  week.  Next  week 
we  hope  to  find  room  for  a  report,  but  now  we  must  content 
ourselves  with  copying  from  the  Bulletin  the  poems  which 
were  read. 

"  Before  quoting  thom,  however,  we  must  not  forget  to  say 
that  Dr.  Furness  spoke  twice  in  the  course  of  the  evening,  the 
first  time  acknowledging  the  gift  of  some  communion  cups 
from  the  church  in  Baltimore  to  the  church  in  Philadelphia. 
It  was  hard  to  believe  that  this  graceful  and  liappy  speaker, 
with  as  fresh  a  voice  as  that  of  the  youngest  man  heard  that 
evening,  and  saying  the  brightest  and  merriest  things  of  the 
hour,  could.be  the  venerable  pastor  whose  semi-centennial  we 
were  celebrating  ;  but  we  presume  that  there  is  not  the  slightest 
doubt  of  the  fact.  And  we  must  also  remember  to  state  that 
among  the  gifts  from  parishioners  and  friends  were  some  elegant 
mantel  ornaments,  and  the  complete  and  original  manuscript 
of  Charles  Lamb's  '  Dissertation  on  Koast  Pig.'  The  Bulletin 
says  that  this  unique  and  interesting  present  was  '  secured  as  a 
Christmas  gift  at  a  recent  sale  in  London,  and  handsomely 
mounted  and  bound  in  large  folio  form.'  ''—Christian  Register. 


104 


W.  H.  F. 

"  THE    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY." 
BY   WM.  C.   GANNETT. 

FiFTr  times  the  years  have  turned 
Since  the  heart  within  him  burned, 
AVith  its  wistfulness  to  be 
An  apostle  sent  of  Thee. 

Closely  in  his  Master's  tread 
Still  to  follow,  till  he  read, 
Tone  of  voice  and  look  of  face, 
Print  of  wound  and  sign  of  grace. 

Reading  there  for  lifty  years, 
Pressing  after,  till  the  tears 
And  the  smiles  would  come  and  go 
At  the  self-same  joy  and  woe — 

Sharing  with  him  shouts  of  "  Mad  ! 
When  the  bold  front  to  the  bad 
Bent  to  pluck  the  "  little  ones" 
From  the  feet  of  fellow-sons — 

Sharing  in  his  inner  peace. 
But  not  sharing  the  release, 
He  is  with  us  wliile  the  chimes 
Ring  his  "  Well  done"  fifty  times. 

Listening  boys  across  the  iicld 
Pledge  a  hope  they  may  not  jneld  : 
Are  they  listening  from  the  air  — 
Boys  who  started  with  him  there? 


REV.  DR.  FURNESS'  RESIGNATION. 


1-1 


On  Thursday,  January  14th,  1875,  Dr.  Furness  sent  the  fol- 
lowing letter  to  the  Society,  resigning  the  charge  of  the  pulpit 
into  their  hands — 


107 


TO  THE  ^[EMBEPvS  OF  THE  FIRST  CONGREGA- 
TIONAL CHURCH. 

My  very  dear  Friends  :  While  the  measure  of  healtli  and 
strength  still  granted  me  demands  ni}^  most  thankful  acknowl- 
edgments, and  while  I  am  inexpressibly  grateful  for  the  re- 
cent manifestations  of  your  affectionate  regard,  I  am  admon- 
ished by  the  ending  of  fifty  years  of  service  as  your  minister, 
and  by  the  time  of  life  that  I  have  reached,  that  only  a  little 
while  remains  to  me  at  the  longest.  I  am  moved,  therefore, 
to  resign  the  charge  of  the  pulpit  into  your  hands.  How  could 
I  have  borne  it  so  long  but  for  your  patience  and  steadfast 
friendship?  I  recognize  a  salutary  discipline  in  the  necessity 
which  I  have  been  under  all  these  years  of  weekly  preparation 
for  the  Sunday  service.  It  is  good,  as  I  have  learned,  for  a 
man  to  bear  the  yoke  in  his  youth,  and  even  in  middle  ago; 
but  now,  when  only  a  fragment  of  life  remains  to  me,  I  would 
fain  be  released  from  that  care,  which  neither  time  nor  custom 
has  rendered  any  lighter  than  in  my  earlier  years. 

With  the  surrender  of  the  pulpit  you  will  understand  of 
course  that  I  decline  all  further  pecuniary  support.  I  beg  leave 
respectfully  to  suggest  that  for  some  time  to  come  the  pulpit  be 
supplied  by  settled  ministers,  so  that  nothing  shall  be  done 
hastily  in  the  matter  of  deciding  upon  my  successor.  More- 
over, for  all  other  pastoral  offices,  1  shall  be  at  your  service, 
remaining  always  your  devoted  friend,  and  in  undying  aflec- 

tion, 

Your  pastor, 

W.  H.  Furness. 
.January  14th,  1875. 


108 


At  a  meeting  of  the  Society  held  in  the  church  Saturday 
evening,  January  23d,  1875,  it  was  voted  that  the  following 
letter  should  be  sent  to  Dr.  Furness,  accepting  his  resignation, 
and  that  the  Trustees  should  sign  the  same  on  behalf  of  the 
Society. 


109 


FIRST  CONGREGATIONAL  UNITARIAN  CHURCH. 

Philadelphia,  January  25th,  1875. 

Dear  Dr.  Furness  :  The  members  of  this  Society  have  re- 
ceived with  sorrow  your  letter  of  the  14th  inst.,  in  which  you 
resign  the  charge  of  the  pulpit  which  you  have  filled  so  long, 
with  so  much  ability  and  so  much  to  their  satisfaction. 

Although  we  deeply  regret  the  existence  of  the  circumstances, 
which  in^your  opinion  have  made  the  step  necessary,  we  ac- 
knowledge the  justice  of  permitting  you  to  judge  freely  of  the 
force  of  the  reasons  in  its  favor,  Avhich  have  governed  you  in 
coming  to  your  decision ;  and  though  we  feel  it  would  be  a 
great  privilege  to  us  to  have  the  pastoral  relation  continued 
through  the  coming  years,  during  which  we  fondly  hope  you 
may  be  spared  to  us,  yet  we  acquiesce  in  the  propriety  of  promptly 
acceding  to  the  wish  for  relief  which  you  have  so  decidedly  ex- 
pressed both  in  your  letter  and  verbally  to  the  committee  ap- 
pointed at  our  meeting  on  the  19th  inst.,  to  ask  you  to  recon- 
sider your  action  and  to  withdraw  your  resignation.  It  would 
be  ungrateful  for  us  to  do  otherwise,  and  would  show  on  our 
part  a  want  of  proper  appreciation  of  the  value  of  your  long- 
continued  labors  thus  to  make  what  must  be  to  you  in  itself  a 
painful  act  still  more  ])ainful. 

We  cannot  fully  express  in  words  our  thankfulness  that  the 
relation  between  us  has  remained  unbroken  through  so  many 
years,  and  that,  though  the  formal  tie  may  now  be  severed, 
we  are  yet  permitted  to  see  you  face  to  face,  to  hear  your  voice, 
to  press  your  hand,  and  to  know  that  you  arc  among  us. 

For  the  reasons  which  you  have  presented,  and  because  you 
so  earnestly  desire  it,  because  it  is  our  wish  to  do,  at  whatever 
loss  to  ourselves,  that  which  will  be  most  grateful  to  you,  and 
thus  to  manifest  in  the  strongest  way  we  can  our  appreciation 
of  our  privileges  in  the  past,  and  with  the  hope  that  for  years 


110 


to  come  you  may  be  with  us  and  of  us,  we  regretfully  accept 
your  resignation,  and  remain,  on  behalf  of  the  Society, 
Your  affectionate  friends, 

Henry  Winsor, 
Lucius  H.  Warren, 
Dawes  E,  Furness, 
Joseph  E.  Katmond, 
John  Sellers,  Jr., 
Enoch  Lewis, 
Charles  H.  Coxe, 

Trustees. 

This  letter  was  read  at  the  meeting  of  the  congregation,  held 
on  Saturday  evening,  January  23d,  1875,  was  approved,  and 
the  Trustees  were  instructed  to  sign  it  on  behalf  of  the  Society 
and  forward  it  to  Dr.  Furness. 

Charles  H.  Coxe, 

Secretary. 


INDEX. 


Preliminary  Meetings, 

Dr.  Eurness'  Fiftieth  Anniversary  Discourse, 
Extract  from  Forty-ninth  Anniversary  Discourse 
Commemorative  Meeting, 

Prayer  of  Kev.  John  H.  Morison,  D.D., 
Eemarks  of  Kcv.  J.  F.  W.  Ware, 
"  "   Rev.  W.  C.  Gannett, 

"   Pvev.  E.  H.  Hall,      . 
"         "   Pvev.  S.  K.  Lothrop,  D.D., 
"         "   Rev.  J.  F.  Clarke,  D.D., 
"    Rev.  C.  A.  Bartol,  D.D., 
"         "   Rev.  J.  F.  Thompson,  D.D 
"         "   Rev.  J.W.  Chadwick, 
"         "   Rev.  R.  R.  Shippen, 
"         "   Rev.  T.  J.  Mumford, 
"         "   Rev.  W.  O.  White,  . 
"         "   Rev.  A.  P.  Putnam,  D.D., 
"         "  Rev.  C.  G.  Ames,    . 
u  a   Rev.  H.  W.  Bellows,  D.D., 

'«         "   Rev.  W.  H.  Furness,  D.D., 
Letters,    ..••••• 
Extracts    from    the    "  Liberal     Christ 

"  Christian  Register," 
Poem,  by  W.  C.  Gannett,       ... 
Resignation  of  Rev.  W.  H.  Furness,  D.D., 
Letter  of  the  Trustees,  .     .         .         • 


PAriE 

3 

9 
28 
41 
42 
44 
48 
49 
51 
55 
57 
61 
06 
70 
72 
72 
74 
76 
77 
81 


97 
104 
105 
109 


